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INDIAN CORN; 



ITS 



VALUE, CULTURE, AND USES. 



EDWARD ^ENFIELD. 



NEW YORK : 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 

443 & 445 BROADWAY. 
1866. 



Ehteeed, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, hj 

D. APPLETON & CO., 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Conrt of the United States for the 
Southern District of New York. 



co^ 



V'A^ 



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/9 



TO THE EDITORS AND LEADING WRITERS OP THE 
AGRICULTURAL PRESS. 

As a feeble tribute of admiration, Gentlemen, for your valuable 
services iu advancing the great farming interest of our country, the 
author begs leave to inscribe to you this humble effort. 

Agriculture is the acknowledged basis of our national growth and 
prosperity. It has contributed, more than any other cause, to make 
oar country what it is, and is destined to be equally instrumental here- 
after in making it all that it promises to be. 

But while we all perceive and readily acknowledge the great national 
importance of this branch of industry, should we not equally recognize 
the vast and beneficent influence exerted by the class of writers I am 
addressing ? — a class, numerically small but influentially potent, who, 
by advancing our agriculture, have contributed more to develop our 
material wealth and power than any other equal number of men in the 
country. No man who has paid any attention to the progress of Amer- 
ican husbandry during the last few years, and to the direct influence 
exerted upon it by the class of periodicals especially devoted to it, can 
fail to realize how much the country is indebted to the conductors and 
writers of such journals. 

Wherever these sheets have penetrated the rural districts, the 
effect has been immediately obvious, in the ameliorated condition of the 
soil, in the improved quality and augmented quantity of farming prod- 
ucts, and in the general thriftiness, the social and moral advancement 
of the farming population. 



4: DEDICATION. 

It is not the mere language of compliment, Gentlemen, to say that, 
while you have been steadily, and patiently, and zealously engaged from 
month to month, and from year to year, in writing up our farmers to a 
higher level of intelligence and success, you have at the same time, and 
in the same measure, been writing up to a higher level the prosperity 
and affluence of our common country. 

The clever author of " Ten Acres Enough," in accounting for the 
success of his farming enterprise, remarked, with pardonable compla- 
cency, that he had manured his soil loith brains. The metaphor will 
bear a wider application. It may be said with equal propriety that our 
agricultural writers have been for a series of years manuring a continent 
with the same remarkable fertilizer. 

It is one of the most auspicious signs of the times, that the general 
public are beginning to take a much livelier interest than ever before in 
all that relates to the cultivation of the soil. Horticultural magazines 
and farming journals are finding their way into hundreds of families 
who, having no ground to cultivate, are yet waking up to a general 
interest in the subject. Quotations from the agricultural press are now 
frequently and almost constantly seen in the general newspaper ; and 
people are beginning to discover that husbandry, in one form or another, 
is related to every condition of life, and that the welfare of the whole 
community is bound up in the success and prosperity of the farmer. 

To you, Gentlemen, we are largely indebted for this improved and 
encouragmg condition of the public mind. And though your services 
in this great cause have never yet been adequately appreciated, the day 
is undoubtedly near when a more generous recognition will be accorded 
to the influence and usefulness of your labors. One thing, at least, is 
certam. If contemporary justice is not rendered to the leaders and 
guides and expounders of American agriculture, another generation will 
gratefully record their names among the benefactors of our country. 

I am, Gentlemen, respectfully and gratefully yours, 

THE AUTHOR. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. 

In the preparation of this work, the Author has derived 
valuable information from various sources, which it gives him 
pleasure to acknowledge. Where the language of another 
writer has been employed, it is duly credited in the context. 
Besides these instances, he is indebted for facts and opinions to 
the following authorities : 

" Johnston's Agricultural Chemistry," " The American Farm- 
er's Encycloptedia," " Burr's Field and Garden Vegetables of 
America," " Harris's Rural Annual," and " Tucker's Illustrated 
Annual Eegister." Also to the productions of Dr. Harris and 
Dr. Fitch, " On Injurious Insects ; " to the " Transactions of the 
New York State Agricultural Society," and to the American In- 
stitute Farmer's Club, whose weekly discussions abound in val- 
uable practical information. 

Prominent also among the works that have been of service 
to the writer, are the Agricultural Journals of our country. 
While they are gratefully recorded here as valuable auxiliaries 
in the present undertaking, the record may, perhaps, prove ser- 
viceable to the farming community by attracting their attention 
to these fruitful sources of knowledge and sure guides to pros- 
perity. 

The American Agriculturist New York City. 

" WeeUy Tribune " " 



ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. 

TTie Country Gentleman Albany, N. Y. 

" WorTcing Farmer New York City. 

" New England Farmer Boston, Mass. 

" Boston Cultivator " " 

" Farmer and Gardener Philadelphia, Pa. 

" Rural New TorTcer Eochester, N. Y. 

" Ohio Farmer Cleveland, Ohio. 

" Massachusetts Plowman Boston, Mass. 

" Prairie Farmer Chicago, HI, 

" Farmers'' Advocate " " 

" Wisconsin Farmer Madison, "Wis. 

" Maine Farmer Augusta, Me. 

" Genesee Farmer'^ Eochester, N. Y. 

" Germantown Telegraph Germantown, Pa. 

Colman)s Rural World St. Louis, Mo. 

The Western Rural Detroit, Mich. 

" Culturist Philadelphia, Pa. 

" Rural American Utica, N. Y. 

" Rural Register Baltimore, Md. 

" Iowa Homestead Des Moines, Iowa. 

" Southern Cultivator Athens, Ga. 

" California Farmer San Francisco, Cal. 

♦ Eecently merged in the American Agriculturist. 



PREFACE. 



The importance of the subject, and the absence of 
any -work specially devoted to it, is deemed a sufficient 
apology for the appearance of this book. For a num- 
ber of years the author has given much attention, both 
theoretically and practically, to the culture and uses of 
Indian corn, and has, during that time, accumulated a 
considerable amount of materials relating to the subject, 
and mainly derived from the experience of farmers in 
various sections of the country. 

Since no abler pen has undertaken to supply a want 
widely felt and acknowledged in the agricultural world, 
he has at length concluded to digest and arrange his 
store of materials on hand into the form of the present 
volume, which is now offered to the public with a 
lively sense of its imperfections, but not without a pro- 
found conviction of the importance of the subject. 

The aim has been to condense within a small com- 
pass all needed and useful information, and to state 



8 PKEFACE. 

facts, opinions, and results, as clearly and concisely as 
possible. 

In the discussion of some of the leading topics, the 
author would gladly have devoted more space, in pro- 
portion to their importance, but it was found that such 
a course would render the work more voluminous and 
expensive, thereby possibly excluding it from the larg- 
est circle of readers. 

The critical reader is here notified that he will find, 
in the course of these pages, some repetition of the lead- 
ing thoughts which it is the object of this book to de- 
velop and impress. When a topic, abeady once treated, 
has reappeared in a different connection, especially if 
involving a principle of some consequence, the writer 
has not hesitated to improve the opportunity of re- 
affirming such principle, and again urging it on the 
attention of the cultivator. The same ideas haA'e thus 
been, in several instances, partially reproduced. If 
they shall appear to the agricultural reader as impor- 
tant as they have seemed to the writer, no further 
apology will be needed. The reader who looks for im- 
perfections will easily find them ; but faults which, 
like this, have their origin in the force of the writer's 
convictions, however they may displease the critic, 
will not, it is thought, offend the practical farmer. 



ooisrTEisrTS. 



PAGE 

INTKODUCTION 11 

EXTENT AND VALUE OF THE CORN CROP, 22 

General View of the Crop. — Money Value of the Crop.— Estimated 
Crop for 1S70. — Consumption of the Crop. 

NAME AND ORIGIN OF INDIAN CORN, 38 

ADAPTATION TO VARIETIES OF SOIL AND CLIMATE, 86 

ADAPTATION TO THE WANTS OF MAN, 40 

CERTAINTY OP THE CROP, 45 

AVERAGE YIELD, 45 

PRODUCTIVENESS, 43 

LIMIT OF PRODUCTION, 54 

VARIETIES OF INDIAN CORN, 60 

IMPROVEMENT OF VARIETIES, 67 

INTRODUCTION OF NEW VARIETIES, Tl 

CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF CORN, 76 

DEVELOPMENT AND STRUCTURE, 82 

SEED FOR PLANTING, 90 

Selection of Seed. — Preparation of Seed. 

TIME TO PLANT,., 97 

THE SOIL AND ITS CONSTITUENTS 102 

PRACTICAL MODE OF TESTING THE SOIL, 107 

PREPARATION OF THE SOIL, 113 

MANURES, 113 



10 CONTENTS. 

FA6B 

PLANTING, 126 

AFTEK-CULTUBE, 186 

HAKVESTING AND STOEING, 142 

ENEMIES OF COEN, 147 

PREVENTIVES AND REMEDIES, 155 

DISEASES OF CORN,.... 162 

THE STALK CROP, 165 

Feeding Value of the Stalk.— Ratio of the Stalk to the Grain.— Cured 
Fodder.— Green Fodder.— Cost of Producing Corn Fodder. — Esti- 
mated Stalk Crop of the United States.— Cutting Corn Fodder.— Nu- 
tritive Value of the Cob.— Nutritive Value of Com and Cob Meal. 

COST OF PRODUCTION, 200 

HOW TO OBTAIN A LARGE YIELD 216 

THE LARGEST YIELD ON RECORD, 223 

USES OF CORN, 233 

1. Corn as an Article of Human Food.— In the Green State.— In the 
Ripe State. 2. Corn as Food for Domestic Animals.— For Poultry. 
— For Horses. — For Cattle.— For Swine. — For Sheep. 

COST OP BEEF MADE FROM CORN, 249 

PORK " " " 260 

" MUTTON " " 266 

" BUTTER AND CHEESE MADE FROM CORN, 270 

HOW TO MAKE FEEDING PROFITABLE, 275 

MISCELLANEOUS USES OF COEN, 279 

For Paper and Cloth.— For Syrup and Sugar.— For Distillation.— For 
Oil. — For Green Manure. — For Fuel. 

THE PRODUCT OF ONE ACRE, > 286 

COEN CULTURE AT THE WEST, 292 

THE MANUFACTURING INTEREST IN ITS RELATION TO AGRI- 
CULTURE, 293 

MARKET PRICE OF COEN, 801 

CONCLUSION, 805 



H^TDIAJsT OOEl^. 



INTEODUCTIOK 

It appears, from the census returns of 1860, that 
there were at that time, 3,381,583 farmers in the ^ 
United States, which, bj the ordinary ratio of increase, 
would make the present number not far from four 
millions ; most of whom are, doubtless, in the habit of 
raising an annual crop of Indian corn. This, at least, 
is to be presumed, for the crop is so universally culti- 
vated, and so essential to the husbandman, that those 
omitting it must be extremely few in number. 

Allowing for these exceptions, and for the interrup- 
tions resulting from the war, it may be taken for 
granted that there are, in round numbers, not less 
than three and a half millions of proprietary farmers 
engaged in the cultivation of this grain ; some on 
fields measuring hundreds of acres, and some on limit- 
ed patches of a few square rods ; some producing fifteen 
or twenty bushels to the acre, and others one hundred 
and fifty or more ; but all contributing to the grand re- 
sult, and swelling the aggregate crop of the nation to 



12 mDlAN CORN. 

such vast proportions as the world has never before 
witnessed. 

Here, then, are two distinct objects brought to the 
notice of the reader, viz. : 

The great staple crop of the country, and 

The class of men engaged in producing it. 

To the former of these topics the present volume 
is devoted. To the latter, let us accord the passing 
tribute of a few lines. 

There are various reflections that give weight and 
consideration to the large and respectable body of men 
devoted to agricultural pursuits. The very nature of 
their occupation renders it of vital importance to the 
welfare of the community. The products of agricul- 
ture embrace articles of such indispensable necessity, 
that the continued existence of our population is lit- 
erally suspended upon the tillage of the earth. The 
farmer feeds the community, and every member of it 
is thus daily, and almost hourly, reminded of his value 
and importance in the social scale. 

But without dwelling on general considerations, 
it is sufficient to refer to a few prominent facts. It 
will be seen, from the census returns above referred 
to, that in 1860, the whole number of persons in the 
United States engaged in manufactures and kindred 
branches was 2,017,653; and of those engaged in 
commerce and connected pursuits, 757,773 ; while the 
number engaged in agricultural operations, as stated 
above, was 3,381,583. 

Thus it appears that the farmers not only out- 
number the merchants and the manufacturers, taken 



mTKODUCTION. 13 

separately, but they surpass the combined numbers 
of those classes by more than half a million. It also 
appears that, by the ordinary ratio of increase, the 
number of farmers in the whole country, at the period 
of the next census, will probably exceed five millions, 
counting the heads of families merely, and not their 
dependents. 

It is quite apparent, therefore, that this class of 
our citizens, unconspicuous as they have been in the 
retirement of their rural homes, have yet grown to 
dimensions, and risen to an importance, well calcu- 
lated to arrest attention. But while their numbers 
are rapidly advancing, their achievements do not flag. 
The annual fruits of their industry, increasing with 
their population, have reached a prominence and 
magnitude everywhere seen and felt, and everywhere 
acknowledged to be without a parallel. American 
husbandry has made its mark in the world, not only 
by the intrinsic value, but equally by the quantities of 
its products. The unexampled amounts of grain and 
provision which it has annually poured into the chan- 
nels of commerce, have justly challenged the attention 
and the amazement of mankind. 

In whatever light we view this subject, we cannot 
fail to be impressed with the valuable services and the 
growing influence of our yeomanry. It is not a mere 
metaphor, nor even an exaggeration, to say that the 
destiny of the nation is in their hands. The national 
census is the history of their achievements and the 
monument of their greatness. Their position and in- 
fluence in the community is a simple matter of fact 



14 INDIAN COEN. 

which it is proper to recognize, legitimate to account 
for, and maybe useful to contemplate, and which there 
can be no reason to ignore. 

If the mere statement of these facts affords them 
any ground of complacency and self-gratulation, so 
does it also bring with it momentous responsibilities. 
To remind them of these is no idle compliment, but 
may serve a useful purpose. If they have done so 
much for their country in the past, what may they not 
do in the future ? 

The present is an eventful and auspicious epoch in 
our history, holding out to our people, and especially 
to our farming population, great and glorious oppor- 
tunities. We stand between a dreary past and a 
hopeful future. Having extinguished, with a rapidity 
and completeness unexampled, the most stupendous 
rebellion on record ; having continued through the 
whole of that struggle to exhibit and unfold with 
scarcely any interruption our immense material re- 
sources ; having made that fiery tribulation the occa- 
sion and opportunity for developing an amazing na- 
tional vitality, a physical energy, a force of character, 
and a moral power surpassing our own previous con- 
ceptions, and scarcely yet credited by the rest of the 
world ; having confirmed and established in the reluc- 
tant confidence of foreign nations, the vigor, efficiency, 
and permanency of our government ; having thrown 
open our vast domain of fertile acres to the people of 
all climes, thus offering a bid for population beyond 
the competition of other powers ; having invited, facil- 
itated, and secured a steadily increasing tide of immi- 



mTEODUCTION. 15 

gration from abroad, it would certainly appear as if 
the era upon which we are now entering holds out a 
prospect beyond any thing hitherto revealed to man- 
kind. "We stand on the threshold of a future so full 
of promise, so radiant with hope, so teeming with 
possibilities and opportunities, that imagination can 
scarcely overdraw, nor enthusiasm exaggerate the ap- 
proaching scenes of prosperity, affluence, and power. 

To you, Brother Farmers, such reflections as these 
cannot be without interest, for with you it mainly 
rests to realize for your country these well-founded 
and rational anticipations. You hold the keys that 
shall unlock the treasures of the earth. In your 
hands are the magic wands that shall convert proph- 
ecy into history, and organize possibilities into accom- 
plished events, transmuting the visions of the future 
into solid facts, and crystallizing anticipated scenes 
into living realities. 

To you, then, gentlemen, may the writer be al- 
lowed to address a few plain and candid remarks. 

If the prosperity of this nation is founded upon 
the prosperity and success of its farmers, then arises 
at once the vital question. On what does the success 
of the farmer depend ? The obvious answer is, that 
it depends mainly upon his getting from his land the 
largest amount of products, at the lowest rate of ex- 
pense. To do this requires not only industry but in- 
telligence ; not merely the faculty of working, but the 
faculty of thinking. The man who, by combining 
thought with action, contrives to get, year after year, 
five or six bushels more pf wheat, and ten or fifteen 



16 INDIAN COKN. 

more of corn from an acre of ground than his neigh- 
bor gets, imder like circumstances, will undoubtedly, 
other things being equal, outstrip his neighbor in the 
race of prosperity. If this is true in reference to in- 
dividuals, it is equally so and the effect is far more 
striking in reference to communities. 

Let us take, for example, the corn crop of the 
United States, and see what the difference would 
amount to, in the aggregate, if every farmer in the 
country, at the period of the last census, had raised, 
with little or no additional expense, five bushels more 
to the acre. This result was not merely possible, but 
easy to accomplish, and would have made a net addi- 
tion of nearly one hundred and thirty million bushels 
of corn to the product for that year. This being the 
difference on one crop out of a dozen or more, we 
may form some idea of the total excess that would 
result, in a single season, from even a small increase 
all around in the ratio of production, 

ISTow here, gentlemen, is the point which ought to 
arrest your attention. The average yield per acre, 
throughout the country, is entirely below what it 
should be. The product of Indian corn might just as 
well be, on a general average, fifty bushels to the acre 
as thirty or thirty-five ; and in putting the amount at 
fifty bushels, the standard is still too low. 

It is easy, however, to perceive, and is well under- 
stood, that the rate of yield here complained of is the 
fault of a part of the agricultural community only, 
and not of the whole ; and it is but just to remark, 
that low as this average appears, it is nevertheless 



INTEODUCTION. 17 

above that of former years, and has been slowly, and 
witli some fluctuation, gaining ground for nearly half 
a century. It must also be admitted, and is entitled 
to be considered, that notwithstanding this low rate 
of production, the aggregate amounts of our various 
crops have risen to proportions truly amazing, and 
have, as already stated, contributed immensely to the 
growth and power of the country. 

But after all these admissions, though in looking 
at the grand aggregates, we find them, in comparison 
with former years, steadily advancing, and though we 
find the broad result to be national development and 
prosperity beyond that of any other people, still the 
inquiry arises, and forces itself upon the mind. What 
would have been, or rather, what might not have 
been accomplished, with a larger average yield? 
"What other, and higher, and more incredible results 
might not have been achieved, had the ratio of pro- 
duction been fifty bushels per acre for corn, with a 
corresponding increase for all other crops ? 

]^ow, to every cultivator of the soil this question 
of acreable product is one of no little moment ; and 
he has already gone far toward solving it, when he 
has committed his grain to the ground in the spring. 
It is indeed a serious question, not only to himself but 
to the community as well, whether he shall gather^ 
twenty bushels from an acre or one hundred and fifty, 
or wliat intermediate number he shall reach between 
these extremes. One thing at least is certain: in the 
present state of intelligence, with the existing facili- 
ties and recently improved methods of culture, no 



18 INDIAN COEN. 

man of ordinary enterprise will be satisfied with any 
such quantity as the average yield of the last decade. 
It cannot be denied that thirty-three bushels per acre 
is too low an average for the whole country, consider- 
ing that one hundred bushels are by no means unu- 
sual, and that much higher figures have been reached, 
even all the way up to two hundred bushels. 

Whatever has been done in repeated instances, by 
various parties and under differing circumstances, is 
surely a reasonable standard for every man to aim at, 
and one which no true farmer will permit himself to 
lose sight of. Knowing the limit of possibility, it is 
only necessary to know further what are the condi- 
tions essential to its attainment. Comply with these, 
and you achieve the result. Let every farmer make 
up his mind, at planting, how many bushels per acre 
are fairly within his reach. Let him fix his mark in 
the spring, with a firm resolve to come up to it. He 
who determines to achieve whatever has been proved 
reasonably possible, may safely aim at an elevated 
mark ; and if he conforms to the laws of reason, and 
nature, and common sense, will hit the centre of his 
target at every shot. 

But there are, gentlemen, two great agencies op- 
erating throughout the country, the tendency of which 
is so favorable and so powerful for good, that I cannot 
forbear to urge them on your attention. I allude to 
the influence of farmers' clubs and farming journals. 
'No man engaged in agricultural pursuits can expect 
to keep up with the spirit of the times, without avail- 
ing himself of these useful and invaluable means of 



mTEODUCTION'. 19 

improvement. If every man who wins his livelihood 
from the soil, would appropriate the experience of his 
fellow-cultivators by connecting himself at once with 
a farmers' club, and subscribing promptly to an agri- 
cultural journal, causing it to be taken and read in 
his family, the efi'ect on the soil and crops of the en- 
suino; season would be marvellous and mag-ical all 
over the country. 

The valuable facts and experiments, and the va- 
riety of information which abound in these journals, 
produce their legitimate results, in improving, ele- 
vating, and enriching the farmer, with just as much 
certainty as does the manure applied to his crops, or 
the tillage bestowed on the soil. The conductors and 
writers of this branch of the press devote themselv^ 
with untiring industry to collect and disseminate the 
opinions and experience of our wisest practical men, 
and the scientific principles laid down by the highest 
authorities. 

It is not easy to determine how many of these jour- 
nals are at present taken and read throughout the 
country, but it seems probable that the number of sub- 
scribers, putting all the journals together, would not 
much exceed one-third of a million, which is less than 
one man in ten of the agricultural proprietors, and 
scarcely one in forty of the farming population. It 
must be admitted that this ratio of readers to the 
whole number of cultivators is discreditably low. In 
an agricultural community numbering four million 
families, there ought to be, at the least calculation, 
one million subscribers to this class of periodicals ; nor 



20 ESTDIAN COKN. 

is it easy to assign any reason wliy this number should 
not yet be reached before the period of the next gen- 
eral census. We should then have three reading 
farmers where we now have one, and the effect upon 
agriculture which such an increase of intelligence 
would everywhere produce it is scarcely possible to 
overrate. 

It rests with you, brother farmers, to introduce 
this new era of diffused intelligence, by doubling or 
tripling, as you easily may, the circulation of the agri- 
cultural press. Should you enter thoroughly into the 
spirit of this subject, the purpose would be accom- 
plished. You would thereby change the aspect and 
condition of fields and farms all over the land, impart- 
fcig to every meadow a brighter green, and to the 
fruits of autumn a deeper tinge of gold. You would 
communicate ideas to ploughshares, convert the hoe 
into a calculator, and endow the spade with thought. 

What effect this would produce upon the future 
grain crops of the country, it is not difficult to per- 
ceive. Even without counting any increase from this 
cause, the corn crop for 1870, as will be seen by the 
estimate on another page, is likely to exceed a thou- 
sand million dollars in value. The grain itself, accord- 
ing to that estimate, will be sufficient to feed not only 
our own people, but half the population of Europe 
in addition, for more than twelve months; while 
the money value of such annual crops would, in the 
course of three years, suffice to extinguish our national 
debt, and leave a balance in the treasury. 

It seems to me. Farmers of America, that such a 



INTEODTJCTION. 21 

record will be the best possible commentary on the 
Great American Kebellion, and tbe best possible re- 
buke to tlie numerous tribe of croakers and prophets 
of evil abroad, who have so long and steadily been 
gloating over the approaching dissolution of our 
Union. 

That the citizen, soldiers of this country, after bring- 
ing to «, successful close a civil war so formidable and 
terrific, should have laid aside promptly, in the very 
hour of triumph, the arms which they had covered 
with glory, and gone back quietly to their cherished 
homes, and to the beneficent occupations of peace; 
that a class of men notoriously ardent and susceptible 
should abandon at once and with complacency, the 
exciting scenes of martial life, and the fields of all 
their fresh renown, satisfied with a sense of duty per- 
formed and a country saved ; that so soon after turn- 
ing their backs upon the field of battle, they should 
exhibit to the world a countless array of harvest fields 
stretching over a thousand hills and valleys, and cov- 
ering a land redeemed by their valor and now embel- 
lished by their toil — this indeed is a moral spectacle 
instructive to the world, and more to be prized than 
all the material prosperity and affluence which it in- 
dicates. 



EXTENT AND YALUE OF THE C@EN 
CEOP. 

Genekal Yiew. — The extent of tlie corn crop of 
this country, and its importance in an economical and 
commercial view, have risen to a scale of magnitude 
that overshadows all other crops. It appears, from 
the census of 1860, that the corn crop of that year was 
over eight hundred million bushels, while the product 
of wheat, rye, oats, barley, buckwheat, peas, beans, 
and potatoes, taken in their entire aggregate, was less 
than that of Indian corn by more than three hundred 
million bushels. Compared with the wheat crop alone, 
the product of corn is very nearly five times greater ; 
and when the comparison is extended beyond our own 
country, it is found that the corn crop of the United 
States is about equal to the wheat croj) of the whole 
earth. 

The following are the decennial returns of Indian 
corn, as given in the census tables of the last three 
decades : 

For 1840 377,431,874 bushels. 

1850 592,071,104 " 

1860 838,792,740 " 



EXTEISTT AND VALUE OF THE COEN CEOP. 23 

It appears, from this comparison, that the increase 
jQ.'om 1840 to 1850 was nearly two hundred and fifteen 
million bushels, and from 1850 to 1860 it was nearly 
two hundred and forty-seven million bushels. For 
the entire period of twenty years, the gain was over 
four hundred and sixty-one million bushels, being at 
the rate of a little over six per cent, a year, or sixty 
per cent, for each decade. 

The following table exhibits the corn crop of 1860 
in comparison with some of the other leading crops 
of the country : 

Corn 838,792,740 bushels. 

Wheat 173,104,924 " 

Eye 20,976,285 " 

Oats 172,554,688 " 

Barley 15,635,119 " 

Buckwheat 17,664,914 " 

Peas and Beans 15,188,013 " 

Potatoes 110,571,201 " 

The aggregate number of bushels for these eight 
crops is thirteen hundred and sixty-four million, four- 
hundred and eighty-seven thousand, eight hundred 
and eighty-four, making an average of over one hun- 
dred and seventy million bushels for each crop. 

The returns of the corn crop for the several States 
and Territories for 1850 and 1860, are indicated in 
the following table, in which the States are arranged 
in the order of the alphabet and not in the order of 
their yield. 



24 



mDIAN COKN. 




Alabama 

Arkansas 

California 

Connecticut 

Delaware 

Florida 

Georgia "t , . 

Llinois ■^: 

Indiana 

Iowa 

Kansas 

Kentucky 

Louisiana 

Maine 

Maryland 

Massachusetts 

Michigan 

Minnesota 

Mississippi 

Missouri 

New Hampshire 

New Jersey 

New York 

North Cai'olina 

Ohio 

Oregon 

Pennsylvania 

Rhode Island , 

South Carolina 

Tennessee : . . . , 

Texas 

Vermont , 

Virginia , 

"Wisconsin 

Territories 



Bushels. 



28,754,048 

8,893,939 

12,236 

1,935,043 

8,145,542 

1,996,809 

30,080,099 

57,646,984 

52,964,363 

8,656,799 

58,672,591 

10,265,273 

1,750,056 

10,749,858 

2,345,490 

5,641,420 

16,725 

22,446 

36,214,537 

1,573,670 

8,759,704 

17,858,400 

27,941,051 

59,078,695 

2,918 

19,835,214 

530,201 

16,271,454 

52,276,223 

6,028,876 

2,032,396 

35,254,319 

1,988,979 

440,540 



Bushels. 



33,226,282 

17,823,588 

510,708 

2,069,835 

3,892,337 

2,834,391 

30,776,293 

115,174,777 

71,588,919 

42,410,686 

6,150,727 

64,043,633 

16,853,745 

1,546,071 

13,444,922 

2,157,063 

12,444,676 

2,941,952 

29,057,682 

72,802,157 

1,414,628 

9,723,336 

20,061,049 

30,078,564 

73,543,190 

76,122 

28,196,821 

461,497 

15,068,606 

52,089,926 

16,500,702 

1,625,411 

38,319,999 

7,517,300 

2,388,147 



592,071,104 I 838,792,740 



The principal corn-growing States rank for 1860 in 
the following order : 



EXTENT AND VALUE OF THE CORN CROP. 



25 



1. Illinois. 

2. Ohio. 

3. Missouri. 

4. Indiana. 

5. Kentucky. 



6. Tennessee. 

7. Iowa. 

8. Virginia. 

9. Alabama. 
10, Georgia. 



11. N". Carolina. 

12. Mississippi. 

13. Pennsylvania. 

14. New York. 



The first six of these States produced in 1860 about 
four hundred and fifty million bushels, being more 
than half the product of the whole country. 

In 18-10, Tennessee was the greatest corn-produc- 
ing State ; in 1850, Ohio took the first rank, and in 
1860 Illinois stood at the head. 

The greatest gain made by any of the principal 
corn-growing States has been made by Iowa. In 
twenty years the product of that State has increased 
from less than one and a half million bushels to over 
forty-two million bushels. 

The proportion of Indian corn to the whole num- 
ber of inhabitants is not a little remarkable. Com- 
pared with that of potatoes and wheat, it stands as 
follows : 

Potatoes to each inhabitant, 210 lbs. 

Wheat, " " ;. 330 " 

Corn " " 1,590" 

2,130 

This gives an aggregate of more than two thousand 
pounds of food to every man, woman, and child in 
the country, from three leading crops. 

The following is an approximation to the average 
yield per acre, and the number of acres in corn, for the 
last two decades : 



V 



26 



INDIAN CORN. 



1860. 
1850. 



Increase . 



Acres in Coen. 



25,417,961 

23,682,844 



1,735,117 



Average Tield. 



Boshels per sere. 

33 
25 



Money Yalue of the Coen Chop. — In estimating 
the value of this crop, it is to be remembered that the 
market price of corn varies greatly between the East 
and "West. In the city of New York it has ranged, dur- 
ing the last six years, from sixty cents up to two dol- 
lars per bushel, averaging during the last three years 
about one dollar and ten cents. At the West it has 
ranged much below these figures, probably from fifty 
to seventy per cent, lower ; but as most of the corn in 
that section is consumed on the land where it grows, 
paying the farmer much better, on an average, than 
the market price, it is not easy to determine what the 
crop actually realizes to the producer. Taking into 
consideration, however, the various forms in which it 
is turned into money, and the range of market prices, 
it may safely be assumed that the corn crop brings, on 
an average, not less than sixty cents per bushel. 

But there is an important item which, though it 
has found no place in the tables of the census, cannot 
properly be omitted in computing the product of In- 
dian corn. It will be found that the stalk crop of the 
country, including all the stover of corn raised for all 
purposes, amounts to about forty million tons.* There 
is no regular market price established for this stover, 



* See Estimate on page 177. 



EXTENT AND VALUE OF THE COEN CKOP. 27 

but its positive pecuniary value is not, for that reason, 
any less. It is variously estimated from three or four 
dollars a ton up to twelve dollars and over. In some 
parts of the country, and by many of the best farmers, 
it is considered quite equal in value to good hay. 

As there is, however, some difference of opinion 
in regard to the value of corn-stalks, we will assume 
that they are worth five dollars a ton, on an average ; 
although it is demonstrable that, when turned to the 
best account, they can be made to realize, in most 
cases, nearly or quite double that amount. 

Taking the grain, then, at sixty cents per bushel, 
and the stover at five dollars per ton, the total value 
of the com crop for 1860 will foot up as follows : 

838,792,740 bushels of grain, at 60c $503,275,644 

40,000,000 tons of stalks, at $5 200,000,000 



$703,275,644 



Estimated Ceop foe 1870. — In forming any con- 
clusions on this subject, there is perhaps no better 
guide than the comparative increase of the crop during 
the last two decades. Though agricultural operations 
have been temporarily interrupted in a portion of the 
country by the events of the war, it is now probable 
that the nation will be soon restored to a condition of 
more than former prosperity ; that whatever the coun- 
try has lost by the Rebellion in agricultural products, 
will be more than compensated by the increased ac- 
tivity of the coming years ; and that the census of 
1870 will show that our staple crops have not lost 
ground in consequence of the war. 



28 INDIAN COEN. 

The increase of the corn crop during the twenty 
years from 1840 to 1860, was at the rate of a little more 
than six per cent, a year. It may then, we think, be 
fairly taken for granted, that the gain for the present 
decade will be, at least, equal to five per cent, a year. 
According to this ratio of increase, and taking the 
same valuation as before, the corn crop for 1870 will 
show the following aggregate, in quantity and value : 

1,258,189,110 bushels of grain, at 60c. . . .$754,913,466 
60,000,000 tons of stover, at $5 300,000,000 

$1,054,913,466 

Consumption of the Ckop. — In view of the present 
and increasing amount of this stupendous crop, it be- 
comes an interesting and important inquiry, where 
and how it is consumed. 

The amount of corn exported is small compared 
with that of wheat, and when viewed in contrast with 
the product of the entire crop, appears quite insignifi- 
cant. The total exports of corn and wheat for the last 
six years, and the average per year, are as follows : 

Corn, 40,895,237 bushels, average per year 6,815,872 bush. 

Wheat, 112,938,693 " " " ....18,823,115 " 

Thus it appears that the ratio of corn exported is 
less than one per cent, of the whole crop, while that of 
wheat is very nearly eleven per cent., without includ- 
ing the shipment of flour, which during the same 
period averages 1,667,342 barrels per year. If this 
amount is added to the grain sent abroad, it will make 
the ratio of wheat exported about fifteen per cent, of 
the entire crop. 



EXTENT AND VALUE OF THE CORN CEOP. 29 

But there is anotlier view of the export of com 
which presents it iu a more favorable light. While 
less than one bushel in a hundred is sent directly 
abroad, a much larger proportion tlian this is indi- 
rectly exported, in various forms, more remunerative 
to the farmer, and more profitable for the country. 
Indian corn enters, in a larger or less degree, into 
nearly all the beef, pork, mutton, butter, cheese, and 
lard produced by the entire farming community. 
These products are not only in great demand for do- 
mestic consumption, but are, all of them, with the ex- 
ception of mutton, largely exported. 

The beef shipped to Europe from the port of New 
York, during the last three years, amounts, on an aver- 
age, to forty thousand barrels and fifty-four thousand 
tierces per year. The pork shipped during the same 
time exceeds one hundred and forty-seven thousand 
barrels on a yearly average, and other meats exported 
amount to over one hundred milhon pounds a year ; 
while the aggregate of butter, cheese, and lard sent 
abroad during the same period is over three hundred 
and seventy-five milKon pounds. These results, how- 
ever, are less than they would have been, in conse- 
quence of an exceptional decline in the export of pro- 
visions during the last year. 

But far the largest consumption of Indian corn is 
by our own people. The home market, which is more 
easily readied, is vast in extent, and constantly in- 
creasing in its demand. Not only as a direct article 
of human food is this grain largely consumed here at 
home, but also, and to an almost incredible extent, as 



30 INDIAN CORN. 

provender for the immense number and variety of our 
domestic animals. The same commodities to which 
corn contributes for export, it also produces or aids in 
producing on a very much larger scale for domestic 
consumption. 

As an illustration of this, the quantity of beef, 
veal, mutton, and pork absorbed in a single year 
by the city of New York alone, is indicated by 
the following statement of live stock received for 
1865: 

Beeves 273,274 

Veals 77,991 

Sheep and Lambs 836,733 

Swine 573,197 

Total 1,761,195 

ISTearly the whole of this amount of animal food 
was consumed during the year, by the population of 
New York city and its vicinity ; from which some 
conception may be formed of the quantity of meat re- 
quired, and the quantity of corn used in producing it, 
for a population of over thirty millions. 

The total amount of butter and cheese made in 
1860 was about five hundred and seventy million 
pounds, and doubtless at the present time exceeds six 
hundred million pounds a year, most of which is con- 
sumed by our own people. In j)roducing these arti- 
cles, Indian corn is extensively employed, both the 
grain and the stover being found profitable for the 
purpose. 

In a general view then, of the consumption of com, 



EXTENT AND VALUE OF THE CORN CROP. 31 

we discover how great a proportion of the crop is used 
for conversion into other kinds of food, and how 
largely it is fed out for this purpose on the land where 
it grows ; thereby tending to increase the prosperity 
of the farmer by improving the quality of his soil. 
And herein consists one great advantage of this cereal 
over wheat. Though both are largely consumed at 
home, in one form or another, and both to some ex- 
tent exported, yet the result in the two cases is very 
different. 

The corn which the farmer converts into other 
products may be sent abroad or sold in any market 
without reluctance, and with advantage, for it leaves 
an enriched soil behind it, and brings back wealth to 
the country. But when the wheat crop is sold, wheth- 
er at home or abroad, an integral ])art of the farm 
is sold with it. However largely it may be exported 
to Europe, still the land where it grew is despoiled 
without compensation, and the fertility of the earth is 
bartered for foreign gold. Already the deterioration 
of the soil resulting from this husbandry is, in some 
localities, severely felt, and farmers are anxiously look- 
ing around for new sources of fertility — for some ade- 
quate means of restoring to their land its departed 
virtue. But the system of special crops — of partial 
and exclusive husbandry, is wrong in principle, 
and should be reformed. If the practice of some 
farmers is continued, the loss to the country will in a 
few years be serious. If, for the sake of present gain, 
they continue to trade away the essential quality of 



32 INDIAN CORN. 

their land, along with the grain it produces, selling 
out the very sources of their prosperity, the cream and 
essence of their farms, at sixty pounds to the bushel, it is 
certain to bring impoverishment to themselves or their 
children. 



NAME AND ORIGIN. 

Maize, or Indian Corn, is an herbaceous plant be- 
longing to the family of grasses (GraminecB). Its 
Botanical name, Zea Mays, is indicative of its nutritive 
quality, or power of sustaining life ; the generic term, 
Zea, being derived from the Greek verb Zao, to live, 
while the word Mays is supposed to come from the 
Livonic Mayse, which signifies bread, or staff of life. 
It stands preeminently at the head of the cereals, or 
cereal grasses, which include all those that are culti- 
vated for their grains, such as wheat, rye, maize, etc. ; 
the term cereal being derived from Ceres, the name of 
the Pagan goddess that presided over grain and har- 
vests. 

In England, and on the Continent of Europe, the 
word Corn is applied equally to wheat, rye, and bread- 
stuffs in general ; while in this country the use of the 
term is limited exclusively to maize. This specific 
application of the word has been confirmed by a judi- 
cial decision in Pennsylvania, in which it was ruled 
by the court that the word Corn is a sufficient descrip- 
tion of Indian com. 
2* 



34 INDIAN COEN. 

Origin. — In regard to the origin of this plant, al- 
though there has never been room for reasonable 
doubt, there have been those who fancied there was 
room for argument. America is clearly and beyond 
question the native country of Indian com. Yet, 
from the commencement of its history, writers have 
not been wanting to contest this point, and to claim 
for it an Eastern origin. The weight of authority 
and of argument so entirely preponderates in favor of 
its American origin, that it is scarcely worth while, in 
a work aiming to be useful rather than learned, to 
waste the time of the reader with idle and unprofit- 
able speculation 

If any further evidence were wanting on this point, 
it may be found in the impossibility that a grain so 
nutritious, prolific, and valuable, so admirably adapted 
to the wants of man, could have existed in the Eastern 
world before the discovery of America without coming 
into general use, and making itself universally known. 
Had this cereal existed there at that period, it would 
have made its own record too clearly and positively to 
leave any doubt on the subject. 

But on this, as on some other topics, there will al- 
ways be found a class of minds ready to keep up an 
argument, whether there is any rational ground for it 
or not. It would seem to be time to dismiss the con- 
troversy by accepting, as final, the generally received 
conclusion, sanctioned by sucli names as Humboldt, 
Schoolcraft, and Prescott, that Indian corn was un- 
known to the Eastern world previous to the discovery 
of America. 



NAME AND OEIGm. 35 

But maize is not tlie only important plant indige- 
nous to the "Western world. Other vegetables highly 
prized, either for their usefulness or as luxuries, have 
had their origin here. Among these are included the 
Tobacco plant, and the Potato., both of which, but for 
the discovery of this continent, would still be unknown 
to the civilized world. Let all consumers, then, of 
these three important products, not forget their obli- 
gations to the immortal Genoese navigator, who, when 
he bequeathed a hemisphere to mankind, transmitted, 
at the same time, two priceless articles of food, and a 
weed of questionable value. 



ADAPTATION TO YAEIETIES OF SOIL AND 
CLIMATE. 

The different conditions and qualities of soil re- 
sulting from the combination of its elements in vary- 
ing proportions, are not oulv numerous, but probably 
incalculable. This diversity is strikingly illustrated 
in the fact that adjacent fields, however similar in ap- 
pearance, are often found to differ, and sometimes 
widely, under the test of chemical analysis. 

Yet of the almost endless diversity of soils, it is 
remarkable from how small a number maize is ex- 
cluded. In nearly all of them it will grow to matu- 
rity, while in most of them it thrives with tolerable 
treatment, and repays a generous culture with an 
abundant crop. " Indian corn," says the Farmer's 
Encyclopedia^ " can be cultivated on land, long after 
it has ceased to afford compensating crops of any other 
gi'ain. It contends with poverty better than most 
other plants, and may be advantageously grown in 
any soil fit for cultivation, not excepting blowing 
sands or retentive clay." 

" Corn will grow," says Mr. Joseph Harris, " on 
all soils, from the lightest sand to the heaviest clay, 



ADAPTATION TO VAKIETIE8 OF SOIL AND CLIMATE. 37 

among granite rocks and on the richest bottoms. I 
have been," he adds, " in a two hundred acre field 
in Ohio that has produced annually a good crop of 
corn for over fifty years without manure." 

There is, indeed, scarcely a plant cultivated by man 
that will grow with equal success in so great a diver- 
sity of soils. The evidence of this fact is met with 
in every direction through the country. The travel- 
ler whose way lies through cultivated districts, passes 
over many qualities of land, yet nowhere does he miss 
the ever-recurring cornfield. However far he may 
go, the soil along his way, like the landscape that 
meets his eye, is constantly changing, but the crop of 
growing maize continually reappears. He passes a 
thousand planted fields, so various in the composition 
of their soils that scarcely any two of them are iden- 
tical ; yet of that thousand fields he finds a large 
proportion planted with corn. 

But though this ubiquitous cereal so readily adapts 
itself to the new condition it finds in each new local- 
ity, making itself a home amid uncongenial elements, 
and often growing with luxuriance where other ce- 
reals will scarcely grow at all, we are by no means to 
infer that the quality of the land where it grows is a 
matter of indift'erence. On the contrary, there is no 
grain more sensitive on this point than maize ; none 
that pays so munificently for fertility of soil in the 
afiluence of its yield. 

Another property of this grain, which no other 
cereal possesses in an equal degree, is the variety of 
CLIMATE to which it is adapted, and the facility with 



38 ESTDIAN COKN. 

which it may be translated fi'om one latitude to 
another. 

Though originally found in or near the tropics, it 
has gradually extended beyond those limits, and may 
now be seen growing over the greater part of this con- 
tinent, from about the fiftieth degree of north latitude 
to a corresponding parallel south, and extending to 
limits not far short of these in the Eastern hemisphere ; 
though in the latter the growth is less vigorous and 
the maturity less certain. When transferred from one 
climate to another, if the distance be not so extreme 
as to render the contrast too violent, it gradually parts 
with the features and habits peculiar to its recent lo- 
cality, and readily acquires those that are appropriate 
to its adopted home. By this beneficent arrangement 
of Providence its value and usefulness to man are 
gi'eatly enhanced, not only by rendering the culture 
more general, but by aifording the means of multiply- 
ing its varieties, improving its quality, and increasing 
its yield. Indeed, the important destiny for which 
this grain seems designed by the Creator, is in noth- 
ing more apparent than in the extensive area which it 
covers, and the variety of climes in which it thrives. 

Though cultivated quite extensively and with con- 
siderable success in Southern Europe, as well as in 
portions of Asia and Africa, yet America seems to be 
its peculiar home, and the region of its highest per- 
fection. From Maine to Oregon, from British Amer- 
ica almost to the extreme verge of Patagonia, this 
legacy of the red man to the white, in some of its 
forms or varieties, is annually cultivated. Where 



ADAPTATION TO VARIETIES OF SOIL AND CLIMATE. 39 

frost-bound Minnesota lends to its growth a short and 
reluctant summer, where the rigor of a Canadian cli- 
mate concedes to it a few weeks of glowing sun, or 
where the fervid sky of Kansas, or the sultry air and 
longer season of either Carolina produce an earlier 
development and a larger growth ; in short, wherever 
on this continent civilized man can exist with tolera- 
ble comfort, there will you find Indian com pushing 
its little cylinder of folded leaves through the soil, or 
unfurling to the wind its long and graceful foliage, or 
lifting its newly formed tassel to greet the rising sun. 
Though its growth under tropical skies is more 
rank and luxuriant, producing not unfrequently stalks 
of prodigious size, the yield of grain is found to in- 
crease as it advances toward the pole, and the largest 
product per acre is said to be obtained near the north- 
em limit of its range. 



ADAPTATION TO THE WANTS OF MAN. 

The consumption of maize by the human family, 
and by nearly all domestic animals, has greatly in- 
creased within the last few years. As an article of 
food it is unsurpassed, and in the opinion of many 
unequalled, by any other grain or plant, combining, 
as it does, in suitable proportions, all the essential and 
valuable elements required for healthfulness and nu- 
trition. 

It appears from chemical analysis that Indian corn 
contains more oil and starch than wheat, with rather 
less gluten ; and therefore, while scarcely inferior to 
that grain in nutritive value, far surpasses it, as well 
as the other cereals, in its fattening properties, which 
amount to nearly eighty per cent, of its composition. 
In point of nourishment it is second only to wheat, 
and even here the superiority of the latter is rather 
nominal than real ; for if due allowance is made for 
the loss sustained by wheat in grinding and bolting, 
it will be found that a pound of corn yields quite as 
much nourishment as a pound of wheat. It is nearly 



ADAPTATION TO THE WANTS OF MAN. 41 

fourfold more nutritious than tlie potato, which has 
so long been the great staple and staff of life with a 
numerous class, both in this and other countries ; and 
it has been proved by experiment that corn meal will 
sustain a workingman longer, when fed upon it ex- 
clusively, than any other grain. 

The numerous preparations and manifold forms in 
which maize is fitted for the table, contribute to ren- 
der it the most various and valuable, as it is with one 
exception the most abundant article of human food. 

There is, however, a noticeable difference in the 
properties of the several varieties of this grain. "While 
the constituents remain nearly the same in all, the 
proportions vary in which they are combined, and 
this fact still further increases its adaptation to the 
requirements of man and animals. 

" For the colder half of the year," says the Ainer- 
ican Agriculturist, " the oil and starch of the corn are 
better adapted to the wants of the body, than the 
large amount of gluten in wheat. Corn contains all 
the elements needed in the body, and in just about the 
proportion they are required in winter, while they are 
nearly suited for food in warm weather." 

The writer might have added with much truth, 
and making the case still stronger, that the Southern 
varieties, having a smaller proportion of oil than the 
flint corn of the JN'orth, are thereby rendered a softer 
and cooler food for the climate that produces them ; 
while the presence of a larger amount of vegetable oil 
in the maize of higher latitudes imparts to it the very 
quality that fits it for the region of its growth. It is 



42 INDIAN COEN. 

found by travellers to the Korth that the larger the 
proportion of fatty elements contained in their food, 
the more easily they withstand the extreme severity 
of tlie temperature. Accordingly it appears that the 
seal, the bear, the water-fowl, and other animals that 
supply food to the natives of the frigid zone, acquire a 
superabundance of fat in the ratio of their proximity 
to the pole ; and here we perceive the same law re- 
vealing itself in the vegetable kingdom. As man 
advances to the north, he finds the fuel that is de- 
manded by the rigor of the climate partially supplied 
by the indigenous food that pertains to the latitude. 

It is also to this peculiar property of maize that it 
largely owes its unrivalled excellence for fattening 
purposes. All domestic animals are easily and rapidly 
fattened when judiciously fed with corn meal ; and, 
what is still more important, the flesh thus acquired is 
firmer and better than that produced by any other 
grain. 

A further and more detailed consideration of the 
uses and value of this cereal for purposes of food may 
be found in a subsequent chapter. 



CEETAINTT OF THE CROP. 

Indian corn is usually accounted a certain crop, 
and in comparison with many others it undoubtedly 
is so. When seasonably planted, with due attention 
to the selection of seed, and tolerable care in the after 
culture, it has scarcely ever been known to result in 
failure. There are, of course, exceptional cases, arising 
from providential or human causes, such as unseason- 
able frost, absolute sterility of soil, utter neglect of the 
crop, etc. Apart from such instances as these, there 
is no seed which the husbandman commits to the 
earth with more certainty of securing some return for 
his labor. 

Tet the difference between a moderate crop and a 
large yield is a very material point for the farmer to 
consider, though he too often overlooks it. Here is, 
in fact, the point where certainty ends and contingency 
begins. While he feels reasonably sure of a moderate 
yield, he is in danger of neglecting the means that 
would make him almost equally sure of a much greater 
one. The interval between thirty or forty bushels 
per acre and one hundred and fifty is very considera- 



44 INDIAN CORN. 

ble, and if he allows himself to rest in the confidence 
of securing the former, he will be quite apt to lose 
sight of the possibility of the latter. 

A small or moderate crop is nearly always a mat- 
ter of tolerable certainty. But a large yield is encir- 
cled by elements of doubt. It is* to some extent a 
question of sun 'and rain, of dew and frost, of tillage, 
fertilizers, etc. It is a question, too, about which 
squirrels and mice, and greedy birds, and myriads of 
voracious insects, have each a word to say. 

Yet amid all these contingencies, and in the face 
of all these enemies, the intelligent husbandman re- 
poses undismayed upon his conscious resources, reflect- 
ing that the same Providence that has strewed diffi- 
culties along his path has also endowed him with in- 
tellect and skill sufficient to counteract them. He 
goes into the cornfield with a clear head, a resolute 
purpose, and a strong faith, well provided with seed 
and implements, and with his favorite agricultural 
journal, and lo ! the formidable host of obstacles and 
enemies vanish from his presence ; and where a slov- 
enly, unthrifty man, who never reads and never grows 
wiser, would possibly produce a crop of twenty or 
thirty bushels per acre, he, the intelligent farmer, 
raises one hundred bushels or more. 



AYEEAGE YIELD. 

The average yield of Indian corn in the United 
States for 1850 was, according to the census of that 
year, twenty-five bushels per acre ; the extreme limits 
being eleven bushels for South Carolina and forty 
bushels for Connecticut. For 1860 the census tables 
do not give the average product per acre for the whole 
country, nor do they furnish any returns from which 
the average yield for that year may be accurately de- 
termined. We have, however, numerous reports and 
estimates of acreable products from various sections of 
the country since that period, from which a proximate 
average may be arrived at. 

Mr. Ezra Cornell has reported for Tompkins Coun- 
ty in this State an average of 46.7 bushels per acre 
on the level of Cayuga Lake, and 32.4: bushels in lo- 
calities one thousand feet higher. From other coun- 
ties in the State there have been reports and estimates 
ranging from twenty-six bushels per acre to forty bush- 
els and over ; making the probable average for New 
York between thirty-two and thirty-three bushels. ^ 

From Ohio we have returns, both official and other- 
wise, making the average product per acre in that 



46 INDIAN COKN. 

State, for a succession of recent years, nearly thirty- 
three bushels per acre. 

In ISTew England, acreable products have been esti- 
mated and reported from diiferent States and sections, 
varying from twenty-seven to thii'ty-eight bushels, the 
most competent judges rating the average at about 
thirty-two busliels. 

Some estimates from Indiana and Illinois would 
lead to the inference that the average for those States 
will reach from thirty-five to forty bushels per acre. 

On the other hand, there are sections of the coun- 
try of no small extent from which the reported esti- 
mates are lower than any of these figures. In some 
of the immense cornfields of the far West, and on the 
large plantations of the Southwest and South, the cul- 
tivation is necessarily imperfect and neglected, and 
the yield being correspondingly low, contributes to 
sink the average for the whole country. 

Taking the various data and means of judging as 
we find them, though there is some room for differ- 
ence of opinion, we may yet reach a general conclu- 
sion that can scarcely be very wide of the mark. 

One writer puts the average yield for the whole 
country in 1860 at thirty bushels, another at twenty- 
eight and a fraction. The editor of the Country 
Gentleman places it in 1862 at thirty-five bushels. 
The opinion of the latter is entitled to great consider- 
ation ; yet we are inclined to think that it is slightly 
above the mark. If we place the general average for 
the last five years at thirty-three bushels per acre, it 
cannot be very far from the truth. 



AVERAGE YIELD. 47 

The difference between the average yield of this 
grain and the amount raised per acre by many of tlie 
best farmers is at first view not a little surprising. 
When we observe scores of cultivators in every direc- 
tion counting their annual yield by the hundred 
bushels per acre, and others ascending to still higher 
figures, and yet find that the average for the whole 
country during the past twenty years has ranged from 
twenty-five bushels to a little over thirty, we can 
scarcely credit or comprehend so strange a contrast. 
Yet the matter is very simple and easily solved. The 
difference in crops is a diflerence of diffused intelli- 
gence ; and it is gratifying to know that the contrast 
is gradually melting away in the presence of farmers' 
clubs, and before the increasing circulation of farming 
journals. 



PKODUCTIYENESS. 

There is no plant or vegetable grown by tbe 
farmer that is more variable in its yield, or more sus- 
ceptible of the influences of soil, season, and treatment 
than this grain. Herein lies a strong argument for 
attending to its requirements, and studying out the 
conditions on which its productiveness depends. On 
the records of State and county fairs, and in agricul- 
tural and other journals, the crops frequently report- 
ed give striking proof of the prolific capacity of In- 
dian corn, and well deserve the attention of the cul- 
tivator. 

The following are a few of the large yields to be 
found on record, and may perhaps serve as a stimulus 
to our farmers, prompting them to aim at similar re- 
sults. It should be remembered that large yields of 
corn tend to increase the supply of other provisions, 
and at the same time enable the farmer to keep up 
the quality of his land. Every man, therefore, who 
raises a large corn crop, not only improves his own 
condition, but contributes to the prosperity of his 
country. 



PRODUCTIVENESS. 49 

David R. Bruce, of Desmoines County, Iowa, a 
lad of fourteen years of age, and L. H. 0. Bruce of 
the same place, aged sixteen years, are reported in tlie 
American Agriculturist to have produced, the former 
one hundred and ten and a half bushels, and the latter 
one hundred and seventeen and a half bushels per 
acre without the aid of manure or fertilizers of any 
kind. 

A writer in the Country Gentleman has stated 
that Joseph "Wright, of Waterloo, N. Y., had not failed 
once in the previous three seasons to get over one hun- 
dred bushels of shelled corn to the acre, by planting 
the red-cob dent corn of Illinois, imported direct from 
the prairies. 

The late Judge Buel, a most intelligent and enthu- 
siastic cultivator, was an advocate of close planting in 
drills, in which he was successful, reaching from one 
hundred bushels to about one hundred and twenty 
bushels per acre. The Messrs. Pratt, of Madison 
County, by the same method succeeded in producing 
one hundred and seventy bushels to the acre. 

The editor of the Annual Register of Rural Af- 
fairs states that one of the best farmers of his ac- 
quaintance has obtained one hundred and thirty 
bushels to the acre by planting his corn three feet 
apart each way. 

The Browne corn has produced, as cited by Mr. 
D. J. Browne, in his Memoir on Indian Corn, one 
hundred and thirty-six bushels per acre, weighing 
fifty-eight pounds to the bushel. 

The Whitman or Hill corn is stated by Mr, Fear- 
3 



50 INDIAN COKN. 

ing Burr, Jr., to have given a product of one hundred 
and forty bushels per acre. 

It has been announced in a Kentucky journal that 
Major Williams, of Bourbon County, succeeded in 
raising one hundred and sixty bushels to the acre by 
planting in rows two feet asunder, with the stalks 
twelve inches apart in the row. This is another 
among many proofs that corn, if rightly treated, may 
be planted nearer than the usual practice without los- 
ing its earing capacity. 

Mr. C. T. Johnson, of New Jersey, has reported 
to the Farmers' Club of the American Institute, a 
crop of the improved King Philip, reaching nearly 
two hundred bushels per acre, produced by close 
planting in drills. 

In a field of corn of six acres, planted by Henry 
!N^orton, of Western Ohio, one-half the field receiving 
no manure, produced one hundred and twelve bushels 
per acre ; while the other half, by subsoiling and lib- 
eral manuring, gave a product of one hundred and 
sixty-five bushels, the ears averaging nearly three- 
quarters of a pound in weight. 

A. B. Miller, of Marion County, Iowa, has written 
to the American Agriculturist an account of sev- 
eral crops raised by farmers in that county in 1860, 
yielding from one hundred to one hundred and 
twenty-two bushels per acre; stating that another 
farmer in the same county, Mr. B. Long, has produced 
one hundred and seventy-eight bushels per acre on 
three contiguous acres; and still further, that Mr. 



PEODUCTTVENESS. 51 

Long's son, under fourteen years of age, raised ninety- 
four bushels on half an acre. 

A larger acreable product, however, than any of 
these, and probably the largest ever reached, was that 
of Dr. J, W. Parker, of Columbia, S. C. It is stated 
in the Weekly Tribune that the corn planted by 
him was the Bale Mountain, a variety obtained from 
Korth Carolina; that the land was under-drained, 
highly manured, highly cultivated, and closely planted, 
and that the yield was two hundred bushels and 
twelve quarts of shelled corn per acre. 

But the prolific vigor of Indian corn is not limited 
to its yield of grain. The stalk crop is no less re- 
markable for its luxuriant growth and surprising 
product. 

While the hay crop seldom exceeds two and a half 
tons per acre, averaging over the country probably 
not more than one and a half tons, the amount of 
stover accompanying the maize crop, forming a part 
of its product, and considered by many farmers quite 
equal in value to hay, generally ranges from two to 
three tons per acre, occasionally reaching four or five 
tons. 

When the stalk crop is raised for the purpose of 
fodder exclusively, the yield is higher still. Nine tons 
of this fodder per acre, weighed after curing, are re- 
ported in the Worldng Farmer and stated to be 
sufficient in quantity for keeping ten cows seventy or 
more days. This amount has not unfrequently been 
equalled, and occasionally surpassed. In a report to 
an agricultural society of South Carolina, more than 



52 INDIAN COKN. 

twenty-seven thousand pounds of cured stover are 
stated to have been produced on a single acre. 

As a cjreen fodder crop, raised for soiling cattle 
during summer and autumn, the weight of this sto- 
ver per acre is still more remarkable. A writer in 
the Country Gentleman^ over the signature of a 
" Buck's County Farmer," says that he has frequently 
raised from fifteen to twenty tons of green fodder per 
acre, and considers one acre sufficient in a good sea- 
son for twenty head of cattle, from about the begin- 
ning of July to the middle of August. 

Mr. John Gr. Webb, a dairy farmer near Utica, 
who usually plants ten or fifteen acres for summer 
feeding, reports his yield at twenty-five tons and up- 
ward per acre.* 

E.. H. Mack, of Parma, Ohio, in a communication 
to the Country Gentleman^ gives twenty-two tons 
per acre as the result of his experience in growing 
stalks for soiling purposes. 

S. W. Hall, of Elmira, N. Y., has raised thirty 
tons per acre by actual weight (as he states in the 
Country Gentleman), but considers tliis more than an 
average yield. 

It has been stated in the Mew Yorh Daily Tri- 
dwie, tliat an acre has been known to supply over 
forty tons of green fodder ; and a still larger product 
is given in Allen''s American Farm Booh, where 
one hundred and thirty-eight thousand eight hundred 
and sixteen pounds of green corn-stalks cut from one 

* See "Tucker's Animal Register" for 186-1, p. 99. 



PKODUCTIVENESS. 53 

acre in a single season are quoted from a report to 
the Pedee Agricultural Society of South Carolina. 
This is the same crop which gave, wJieAi cured, twen- 
ty-seven thousand pounds, as quoted above. 

It is not, however, to be inferred that such crops 
as the above are matters of course, or things of daily 
occurrence, nor that they are free from difficulty, or 
achieved without effort. The contino;encies attending 
a large yield of corn are neither few nor trifling. 
But the persevering and resolute purpose of the well- 
informed cultivator is equal to them all, and the im- 
punity with which his successful crop escapes casu- 
alties and defies contingencies, is an evidence how 
much can be accomplished when intelligence is guided 
by science, and industry is aided by skill. 



LIMIT OF PKODUCTION. 

To the yield of this grain, as to that of every 
other, Nature has somewhere placed a limit, or rath- 
er, perhaps, has surrounded it with a series of limits, 
which no skill or ingenuity of man may exceed. 
There is, for example, a limit in the prolitic power of 
the seed ; another in the capacity of the soil ; and 
still another in the area or space required by each 
grain for perfect development and fruition. These 
might be called, respectively, the limit of fecundity, 
the limit of fertility, and the limit of area, or dis- 
tances. 

It is safe to assume that neither of these has ever 
yet been reached. The productiveness of Indian 
corn has not yet been tested to its ultimate boundary. 
There is a possible yield greater than any yet accom- 
plished. What that yield may be we do not know. 
It may be two hundred and fifty bushels per acre ; 
probably more ; possibly less. But what we do know 
is, that two hundred bushels per acre have been 
achieved. Beyond that lies the domain of uncer- 
tainty, a vast undefined region of dim twihght, which 



LIMIT OF PRODUCTION. 55 

theory may explore, and experiment inay develop, 
probably with useful results. 

The prolific character of maize is shown, not more 
in the large crops spread over many acres, than in the 
self-multiplication of single grains. The reproduc- 
tive vigor inherent in each separate seed is not a little 
remarkable. One kernel has been known to produce 
in a season several thousand grains, and single ears 
of the gourd-seed variety have produced more than 
a pint by measure. 

Now, if the proximity of the growing grains did 
not interfere with this fecundity, if close planting in- 
terposed no limit to these prolific results, it is easy to 
see that an acre might be made to return a thousand 
bushels just as readily as it now returns a hundred. 
"We know that a single stalk of maize will, under cer- 
tain conditions, yield a pound or more of grain. And 
we also know that if an acre of good land, at the 
proper season, were literally covered with grains of 
corn, placed in contact and sprinkled over with earth, 
those grains, if all perfect, would all germinate. But 
would each one return a pound of corn ? Certainly 
not ; nor any other quantity. The close planting vio- 
lates a law of Nature. There is a certain interval or 
space between the stalks that would render a pound 
of corn possible for each. There is another interval 
that would reduce this quantity to a gill ; and still 
another that would render every stalk in the field 
grainless. These intervals, however, are not fixed 
quantities. They vary according to the soil, the kind 
of grain planted, etc. For each of these varying con- 



56 INDIAN COEN. 

ditioiis there is some one mode of spacing better than 
any other — a certain arrangement of distances that 
will give a larger yield than any other. Let us sup- 
pose that yield to be two hundred and twenty-five 
bushels per acre. Then the spacing which gives that 
product is the best possible, and no deviation from 
those distances in planting would increase the yield. 
Here, then, would be a limit of production imposed 
by the law of distances. 

But let us take another view of the matter. 
Every soil not absolutely sterile contains, in its nat- 
ural state, a certain amount of the constituents of In- 
dian corn. In a state of jperfect fertility it would 
contain the largest possible amount of these, and in 
the exact condition and proportions required by the 
growing plants. "We do not perhaps know what is 
the highest point of fruitfulness to which a given soil 
may be brought. But this is not material. The 
maximum of fertility is not indispensable for a maxi- 
mum yield. If the space occuj)ied by the roots of a 
single stalk contain one and a half ounces of the in- 
organic elements of corn, in the right condition and 
proportions, along with a small percentage of the 
iprganic constituents,* then such stalk should produce 
a pound of grain, so far as the yield depends on the 
prolific character of the soil ; and if an acre of ground 
contain, in each square foot, one-half the above, quan- 

tity\pf corn elements, then the capacity of such acre 

\ 

* These being mainly derived from the atmosphere, and from de- 
scending rains, their presence in the soil is not required in the same 
proportions as the other class of elements. 



LIMIT OF PEODUCTION. 67 

is equal to over three Imndred bushels of grain, so far 
as that capacity is determined by the fertility of the 
earth. 

If, then, the farmer brings his land to this stand- 
ard of fertility, complying at the same time with the 
other requisite conditions, he is entitled theoretically 
to expect a corresponding result. If he has made 
sure that his soil contains the constituents of maize 
in the ratio above given, he has reason to calculate on 
three hundi-ed bushels per acre ; and if he fails to get 
that amount, it is not the fault of the soO, but because 
there is another limit to the yield earlier reached than 
the limit of fertility. He is barred out by the limit 
of distances. If he had fertilized his soil to a capa- 
city of five hundred bushels, yet by the hypothesis 
above stated, he could only get two hundred and 
twenty-five bushels, nor even that amount, unless he 
complied with the conditions on which it depends. 

The only barrier, therefore, of any practical con- 
sequence to the farmer is that imposed by the law of 
distances. This limit, being the first that he reaches, 
renders any others that may lie beyond of little mo- 
ment. He can raise but so many bushels on an acre 
as this principle permits ; and how many that may be, 
experiment alone can determine. It is assumed above 
to be two hundred and twenty-five bushels, which is 
doubtless too low. It is extremely probable that the 
further improvement of existing varieties of corn, and 
modes of culture, and, still more, the introduction of 
new varieties, will yet prove that the real limit of pro- 
duction is in fact much higher. 
3* 



58 ESTDLOr CORN. 

But the amount above stated may be confidently 
taken, for the present, as a possible yield, having been 
verified, on a small area of ground, in a number of 
instances. It is, in fact, probable that many farmers 
have produced, without being aware of it, even more 
than this, relatively, on limited portions of their fields. 

Though it is, doubtless, true enough that results 
from small areas are not to be taken as certainties for 
large crops, yet it is also equally true, that experi- 
ments on a small scale are important and valuable for 
determining the best methods, and for proving, not 
indeed the certainties, but the possibilities for entire 
crops. The large yield obtained on one hundred 
square feet will not, of course, be so easily reached on 
an acre; yet the experiment, though small, will, if 
successful, be the sure precursor of a similar yield on 
a larger scale ; for whatever is actually accomplished 
in the one case becomes undoubtedly possible in the 
other. 

But after all that can be said, it must be admitted 
that the value of a large yield depends on what it 
costs to produce it. Nor is it at all likely that such a 
yield as the one above stated to be possible, would be 
found, in the first instance, a profitable crop. The 
processes by which it would be at first arrived at, 
would probably make it more than usually expensive. 
Still it would be a valuable result, and a point gained 
in the right direction. To reduce the cost of such a 
yield, would be a subsequent achievement, and one 
certain to follow, in due season. It is thus in a grad- 
ual way, and by single steps, that all valuable progress 



LIMIT OF PRODUCTION. 59 

is made. It sometimes happens that these single 
operations, abstractly regarded, appear of little mo- 
ment, and sink into temporary obscurity, till some 
thoughtful mind detects their importance as links in a 
valuable chain; and subsequent events ratifying the 
verdict, shed around them a halo of light in which the 
world discerns their true character. 



YAKIETIES. 

The varieties of maize are cliiefly distinguislied 
by- 

1. The color. 

2. The mimber of rows on the cob. 

3. The size of the grain. 

4. The form and hardness of the grain. 

5. The chemical composition of the grain. 

6. The color and size of the cob. 

7. The length of time in maturing, etc. 

From these and some other characteristics, and 
from their numerous combinations, have resulted an 
indefinite number of varieties, which have been still 
further increased by hybridizing and by change of 
climate. To repeat here the almost endless catalogue 
of existing varieties would be scarcely possible, and 
quite unnecessary. The following enumeration em- 
braces most of the kinds in use, and all that are likely 
to be of any practical value to the farmer : 

YELLOW COKN. 

1. New England Eight-rowed. — This variety grows 
from six to eight feet high, with ears averaging nearly 



VARIETIES. 61 

ten inches in length, bearing a broad kernel of bright 
yellow. The number of rows is invariably eight, and 
the cob rather small. From this corn the King 
Philip and some other improved sorts have probably 
been derived. 

2. Golden Sioux^ or Yellow Flint, is a twelve- 
rowed variety, taking its name from the Sioux tribe 
of Indians, formerly resident in Canada, among whom 
it was first found. The grains are of medium size, 
and cob comparatively large. It abounds in oil, 
makes an excellent meal, and is very superior for fat- 
tening animals. It has been known to produce one 
hundred and thirty bushels to the acre. 

3. Canada Yellow. — A small, early maturing, 
eight-rowed variety, with a small cob, and containing 
a large percentage of oil. It is much used for feed- 
ing to poultry, as well as to swine. It admits of close 
planting, and is quite prolific of ears. 

4. King Philip. — An eight-rowed yellow or cop- 
per-colored corn, so called from the celebrated Indian 
chief of that name. It bears a long ear with a small 
cob, and the kernel is larger than that of the Golden 
Sioux. It is a hardy variety, ripening early, and very 
productive. It is much esteemed in Kew England, 
where it has been long cultivated, and is regarded by 
many as one of the best field sorts in use. 

5. Southern Big Yellow. — This variety has a large 
cob, with the kernels large and very wide. It is partly 
of the nature of a Flint corn, but has less oil and more 
starch than the Northern Flint. It is late in matur- 
ing, but quite abundant in yield. 



62 ENHDIAN COEN. 

6. Southern Small Yellow, with grains similar in 
form to the preceding variety, but deeper in color. It 
matm-es earlier, is more oily, and less productive than 
the former. 

T. DuUon. — This variety was introduced by Sal- 
mon Dutton, of Cavendish, Yermont. The stalk is 
of medium height, and the cob comparatively large, 
with ten to twelve rows of grain. The grains grow 
very compactly on the cob, and the ears being well 
filled out at the tips, and of a rich glossy color, pre- 
sent a very fine appearance. It is quite prolific, early 
maturing, and abounds in oil. It is capable of pro- 
ducing one hundred and twenty bushels to the 
acre. 

8. Browne. — This is an eight-rowed sub-variety, 
improved from the King Philip by Mr. John Browne, 
of Long Island, in Lake Winnipiseogee. It has a 
small cob, with large grains, matures early, is very 
prolific, and being rich in oil is valuable for feeding. 
It admits of close planting, and has produced as high 
as one hundred and thirty-six bushels per acre. 

9. Rhode Island Premium. — A hybrid variety 
of comparatively recent introduction, but quite pop- 
ular in some parts of New England. It was produced 
by crossing the Canada, the Eight-rowed Yellow, and 
Red variety of Rhode Island. "With close planting, it 
gives a very fair yield. 

10. Yellow Gourd-Seed. — This is a cross of the 
Southern Big Yellow with the White Gourd-seed. 
It is a very prolific, many-rowed sort, with a small 
cob, comprising numerous sub-varieties, much in use 



VAKIETIE8. 63 

at the South and "West. The ears grow very large, 
sometimes yielding a pound or more of grain. 

WHITE CORK 

1. N'orthern White Flint. — This corn is semi- 
translucent, with a rather large cob. It is very sim- 
ilar in the shape of the ear to the Yellow Flint, and 
embraces numerous sub-varieties. The grains some- 
what resemble those of the Tuscarora, but contain a 
large proportion of oil, and produces a substantial and 
excellent article of meal. 

2. Southern Big White, with twelve rows of 
kernels, similar in form and size to those of the Big 
Yellow. It is a softer corn than the Northern Flint, 
containing less oil and more starch. It is conse- 
quently less adapted for feeding, and the meal is not 
easily kept sound for any length of time. 

3. Southern Little White. — This has the grains 
smaller than those of the former, but similar to them 
in shape, growing more compactly on the cob, and 
containing a larger proportion of oil. This is not a 
prolific variety, and not extensively cultivated. 

4. Whitman or Hill. — An eight-rowed variety, 
with a small cob, with the ears w^ell filled out at the 
tips, and very productive. This corn is well adapted 
for feeding, but is not profitable for marketing, on 
account of the dull white color of the meal. It 
admits of close planting, and is a favorite kind in 
some parts of New England. It has been known to 
yield one hundred and forty bushels per acre. 



64: INDIAN CORN. 

5. Tuscarora. — This is an eight-rowed variety, 
with the kernel large, soft, and remarkably white. 
Though not a sweet corn, it is frequently used on the 
table in the green state. It is destitute of gluten and 
oil, and the meal when bolted resembles in appear- 
ance the flour of wheat. 

6. Long Island White. — The ears of this variety 
are of good size, and usually contain from eight to ten 
rows. It is capable of a prolific yield, and produces 
a meal of sweet and pleasant flavor. 

7. White Gourd-Seed. — In this corn the ears are 
shorter and much larger in circumference than those 
of the flint varieties, containing from sixteen to thirty- 
six rows of long, narrow kernels. It is a very prolific 
variety, extensively planted at the South, and is the 
source from whence many other sorts have been de- 
rived. Like other Southern kinds, it contains more 
starch, and less gluten and oil, than the flint corns of 
the North, and is therefore less suitable for shipping, 
and less profitable for feeding to fattening animals. 

8. Baden. — This variety is an improvement of the 
White Gourd-seed, and takes its name from its founder. 
It is very productive, with a small cob, and grows to 
a remarkable size, yielding from four to six ears on a 
single stalk, and has been known to produce as many 
as ten. 

SWEET CORN. 

1. StoweVs Evergreen. — A late but prolific variety, 
with small cob, and long, deep kernels, which are 
much shrivelled when ripe. It is hardy, but tender. 



VAEIETTES. 65 

continues long in a succulent condition, and is also 
an excellent variety to plant for soiling. 

2. Narraganset. — A small early variety, with eight 
to ten rows and a red cob. It is sweet and tender, 
and very good to plant for a succession. It thrives 
best on a light soil. 

3. Rhode Island Asijlum, — The ears of this variety 
are large, with eight to ten rows. It is rather late, 
but productive, tender, and excellent in flavor. Its 
name is derived from the institution on the grounds 
of which it originated. 

4. Tioelve-rowed Sweet. — This is a late, hardy va- 
riety, with ten to fourteen rows. The ears are large, 
the yield certain, and the quality tender and excel- 
lent. 

5. Darling's Early. — This is a sweet and tender 
variety, with eight rows, and of prolific yield. It 
may be planted for boiling until near the beginning 
of July. 

6. Burr''s Improved Corn. — A hardy and produc- 
tive variety, with twelve to sixteen rows. The ears 
are of large circumference, and weigh, when fit for 
the table, from eighteen to twenty-two ounces. This 
corn is an improvement of the Twelve-rowed Sweet, 
and quite surpasses it in flavor. 

There are many other valuable varieties of table 
corn, among which are — 
Y. Adam^s Early White. 

8. Golden Sweet. 

9. Mammoth Eight-rowed Sweet. 

10. Mexican, etc. 



66 INDIAN COEN. 

The foregoing enumeration embraces the leading 
varieties of field and garden corn. Besides these, may 
be mentioned the following : 

Hcematite, or Blood Red, of various hues, but 
more generally a deep red. It comprises a number 
of sub-varieties, some of whicli have a white, and 
others a red cob. 

Rice Corn. — A small variety, so named from the 
resemblance of its kernels in size and form to the 
grains of rice. It abounds in oil, and is well calcu- 
lated for feeding poultry. 

Parching Corn. — A small variety, somewhat re- 
sembling the preceding. When parched, it is very 
crisp and tender, and of excellent flavor. 

Chinese Tree Corn. — A variety in which the ears 
are suspended from the extremities of separate 
branches. An improved variety of this corn, which 
is said to yield seventy-five bushels per acre with 
ordinary culture, has been cultivated for some years 
by J. L. Husted, of Greenwich, Conn. 

Oregon, or Roclcy Mountain. — A peculiar variety, 
in which each kernel is enclosed in a separate en- 
velope. 

Egyptian Corn, with a head bearing some resem- 
blance to millet. 



IMPEOYEJ^IENT OF YAKIETIES. 

The capability of improvement that belongs to 
Indian corn well deserves the attention of cultiva- 
tors. Progress seems to be a law of its nature, and 
there is probably no variety at present known, how- 
ever poor or however excellent, that may not be made 
better by adopting the appropriate means. 

This progressive tendency is clearly seen on com- 
paring the better sorts now in use with the primitive 
grain cultivated by the natives of this continent at 
the time of its discovery. The fm'ther we go back 
into antiquity, the fewer the sorts, and the poorer the 
quality appear to have been ; and if the genealogy of 
this cereal could be traced to its source, it is extremely 
probable that all the existing varieties would be found 
to have sprung from one original stock, which was 
doubtless as much below the present standard as the 
untutored red man is inferior to the cultivated white. 

Tlie progress thus indicated in the past history of 
maize points clearly to an advancement in the future. 
The law impressed upon it at the start has never 
yet been suspended. Throughout animated nature 



68 INDIAN COEN. 

tlie principle of life implies ceaseless activity and 
onward movement. To stand still is to stagnate, to 
deteriorate, and to decay. In obedience to tliis prin- 
ciple, no variety of Indian corn can long remain 
stationary. If neglected, it will degenerate. K 
rightly treated it will advance — slowly, perhaps, but 
surely, toward perfection. 

The means by which this improvement is to be 
effected are extremely simple. So simple, indeed, that 
we might reasonably expect to witness greater prog- 
ress than we have yet seen. In order to secure this 
object, the chief points requiring the attention of the 
farmer are Selection and Culture. 

Every man who will exercise suitable care and 
judgment in the selection of his seed, without neglect- 
ing its subsequent cultivation, will find the quality 
of his grain and the amount of its product annually 
progressing ; and the difference of a very few years 
will be so marked and unmistakable as to excite his 
surprise. 

This principle of selection, if we did but realize it, 
is one of great extent and importance, and is capable 
of a very wide application. Its effects may be traced 
throughout the animal as well as vegetable kingdom, 
and the field of its influence is coextensive with the 
propagating universe. The valuable results it has ac- 
complished, as seen in the various improved breeds of 
cattle, have long engaged the attention of farmers ; 
and the practical application of the same law in the 
vegetable kingdom, though more recent, has been 
found no less favorable and certain in its effects. 



IMPEOVEMENT OF VARIETIES. 69 

" Tlie jDriiiciple of selection," says the editor of the 
London Field, " so successfully carried out amoi\^ 
cattle and sheep, has of late been applied to the vege- 
table kingdom, and soon the various kinds of seeds bid 
fair to exhibit those qualities of superiority which can 
alone be produced by careful and continuous discrim- 
ination In adopting selection, a great principle 

has thus been evolved, and one manifest advantage is 
that it is open to every agriculturist, without any ad- 
ditional expense to carry out the plan for himself." 

Mr. Hallet, of Brighton, has applied this principle 
with great success to his wheat crop, and has been 
able by that means to more than double the size of 
the original ears. " It has been," he observes, " the 
great leading idea of my life, that the starting with 
an accidentally large ear is a very different thing from 
starting with a similar ear, the result of descent, or 
pedigree. Take the case of two heifers identical in 
every respect but pedigree — the one what she is by 
accident, the other by design. From the former you 
may get any imaginable kind of progeny, from the 
latter only a good kind. In other words, you have 
j&xity of type ; and the good qualities gain the force, 
as it were, of impetus by continual accumulation." 

It is satisfactory to know that American farmers 
are neither indifferent nor inactive on this subject. 
Already marked improvements have been effected by 
this means in some of the varieties of Indian corn. 
The Baden variety, so named from its originator, is a 
striking illustration of this principle. It was produced 
from the White Gourd-seed, by Thomas N. Baden, of 



70 INDIAN CORN. 

Maryland, who, by a persevering and discriminating 
selection of the best seed for a series of years, with 
special reference to obtaining the greatest number of 
ears on a stalk, finally succeeded in establishing a va- 
riety which yields from five to seven ears, and which 
has been said to reach as high as ten ears to a single 
stalk. The Browne corn, an excellent variety ob- 
tained by improving the King Philip, is another illus- 
tration of this same principle. 



NEW YAKIETIES. 

Closely allied to the improvement of maize by 
selection, is the introduction of new varieties by cross- 
ing or hyhridizing. Here again the analogy dravrn 
from the animal kingdom holds good, and the same 
law by which the better qualities of two different 
breeds of animals may be so blended in their joint off- 
spring as to form a third, different from either, ren- 
ders it equally possible to combine the best properties 
of opposite sorts of maize into a new and distinct va- 
riety superior to both of its progenitors. 

But here the principle of selection, becomes more 
than ever important. This alone can give to the new 
hybrid that established character, or fixity of type, 
'that shall render it reliable and of permanent value. 
" If nature be judiciously directed by art," said the 
late John Loraine, after a series of careful experiments, 
" sucli mixtures as are best suited for the purpose of 
farmers may be introduced in every climate in this 
country where corn is grown. And provided the de- 
sirable properties of any of the various corns be prop- 



72 INDIAN COKN. 

erly blended together, an animal selection of the seed, 
with care and time, will render them subject to very 
little injurious change. They do not mix minutely, 
like wine and water. On the contrary, like mixed 
breeds of animals, a large portion of the valuable prop- 
erties of any one of them, or of the whole, may be 
communicated to one plant ; while the inferior prop- 
erties of one or the whole may be nearly grown out. 
When this object is obtained, and we become ac- 
quainted with the proper arrangement of the plants 
in our fields, so as to promote the utmost product, the 
crops of maize will by far exceed any estimate which 
would at this time be considered probable by those 
who have not carefully examined the economy of this 
plant." 

To hybridize this cereal successfully does not re- 
quire in the farmer any peculiar or unusual faculty ; it 
is not the exclusive privilege of genius, nor the mo- 
nopoly of gifted minds ; but depends for success upon 
the plainer and more useful qualities of judgment, 
patience, and careful attention. A few leading prin- 
ciples are important to be observed, and those who 
may be inclined to undertake the propagation of new 
varieties, may perhaps find the following hints of some 
service : 

1. Determine what precise traits or properties you 
intend the new corn to possess. 

2. In selecting the sorts from which to propagate, 
prefer such as have these desired properties distinctly 
marked and predominating, with as few other promi- 
nent qualities as possible. 



NEW VARIETIES. T3 

3. Let tlie varieties you employ be adapted to the 
climate. 

4. Let the planting be so adjusted, as to time, that 
the tassels and silk fibres of all shall appear simulta- 
neously. If these be not in unity of time, the hybrid 
effect will not be produced. 

5. Every sample used to propagate from should 
be the purest of its sort, and if possible free from ad- 
mixture. The more fixed and perfect the type of the 
several progenitors, the more certain and acccurately 
defined will be the qualities that mark the off- 
spring. 

6. All corn planted for propagating purposes 
should have every opportunity of perfect development, 
by being placed in the best soil, at wide intervals, 
liberally manured, and well cultivated. It should also, 
of course, be entirely beyond the reach of the pollen 
of any other corn. 

v. The surest mode of reaching the highest results 
in hybridizing, though it would require more time, 
would be as follows : 

After carefully discriminating the several sorts to 
be used, let the cultivator improve each of these sep- 
arately through a series of selections, as already ex- 
plained, and then, by crossing, let him propagate the 
intended sort from the more perfect types thus ob- 
tained. The new variety resulting from this mode of 
proceeding would afterwards be kept pure and still fur- 
ther improved by continuing the same process of se- 
lection. 

It would not perhaps be easy to foretell the extra- 
4 



74 ENDIAN COEN. 

ordinary results that might and probably will yet be 
reached in thus improving and multiplying the varie- 
ties of Indian corn, by the joint aid of careful selec- 
tion, judicious crossing, and thorough cultivation, 

" This plant," says a writer in the New York 
Daily Tribune^ " hybridizes with great facility. 
Some choice varieties have originated in this way, 
and others will undoubtedly be forthcoming, as no 
topic occupies more space in our agricultural journals 
than corn and its cultm'e. Small fortunes have been 
realized by the originators of new strawberries, rasp- 
berries, and other perishable fruits. Others have 
grown rich by providing machines for shelling and 
grinding corn, and chopping the stalks into fodder. 
But to the fortunate author of a variety which will 
measurably supplant all others, there will be a rich 
reward." 

We have every reason to believe that there is at 
least as wide a margin for improvement, in the case 
of Indian corn, as Webb and other eminent breeders 
have found, in the case of cattle and sheep. The 
results already achieved in this direction clearly 
enough indicate that a broad field for useful and re- 
munerating effort is here presented to the culti- 
vator. 

Whoever will apply to this subject the requisite 
care, judgment, skill, and patience, will find ample 
compensation in the production of a quahty of maize 
superior to any yet known. The competition is open 
to all. The humblest farmer in the country is just as 



NEW VAIIIETIES. 75 

likely, as the wealthy owner of a thousand acres, to 
be the founder of a new variety of corn that shall be, 
to all other varieties, what the South Down or the 
Merino is among sheep, or the stately Durham among 
cattle. 



CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF COEK 

The chemical constituents of maize, according to 
Dr. Jackson, are starch, dextrine, gum or mucilage, 
sugar, gluten, albumen, oil, phosphoric acid, phos- 
phate of lime, phosphate of magnesia, siHca, potash, 
and oxide of iron. The proportions in which these 
elements are combined varj according to the variety 
of corn, and also, but in a less degree, according to 
soil and other circumstances. 

A careful attention to the component parts of this 
plant, and a general acquaintance with the subject, are 
both useful and essential to the practical farmer. No 
man who goes on from year to year planting, culti- 
vating, and harvesting his most important crop, with- 
out any definite idea of the elements composing it, 
can consider himself creditably posted in his business. 

The following is the analysis of Dr. Dana : 

riesii forming principles, (gluten and albumen) . 12.60 
Fat forming principles, (gum, starcli, sugar, woody 

fibre, oil, etc) 77.09 

Salts 1.31 

Water 9-00 

100.00 



CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF COBN. 77 

In the ruta baga, according to Dr. Dana, the fat- 
forming principle amounts to 13 per cent., and in the 
potato to 24.34 ; while the proportion of flesh-forming 
substance in the former is equal to only 1 per cent., 
and in the latter to 2.07 per cent. As these roots are 
used, more or less, in feeding to stock, it is of some 
interest to the farmer to compare their nutritive and 
fattening properties, as here stated, with those of In- 
dian corn : 

AiTALTSis OF Indian Coen (when dried at 212° Falir., to expel 
the water), by Peof. Johnston. 

Stai-ch, etc 71.6 

Proteme compounds 12.3 

Fatty matter 9.0 

Husk 5.9 

Mineral matter 1.2 

100.00 
Analysis of Peof. Platfaie. 

Proteine 7.00 

Fatty matter 5.00 

Starch 76.00 

Water 12.00 



100.00 



The following table, by Prof. Johnston, gives the 
composition of the ash of corn-stalks, as compared 
with a similar analysis of the straw of wheat, barley, 
oats, and rye. The proportion of each constituent is 
given for one thousand pounds of the ash : 



78 



INDIAN CORN. 





Com 

Stalks. 


Wheat 
Straw. 


Barley 

Straw. 


Oat 

Straw. 


Eye 

Straw. 


Potash 


96 

286 

83 

66 

8 

171 

7 

15 

270 


125 
2 

67 
89 
13 
31 
58 
11 

654 


92 

3 

85 

50 

10 

31 

10 

6 

676 


191 
97 
81 
38 
18 
26 
33 
32 

484 


173 


Soda 


3 


Lime 


90 


Magnesia 


24 


Oxide of Iron 


14 


Phosphoric Acid 


38 


Sulphuric Acid 


8 


Chlorine 


5 


Silica 


645 








1,012 


1,000 


963 


1,000 


1,000 



The ash of the grain of each of the above, when 
analyzed, gives the following proportions : 





Corn. 


Wheat. 


Barley. 


Oats. 


Eye. 


Potash 


I 325 

14 

162 

3 

449 
28 
14 

2 


237 

91 

28 

120 

7 

500 

3 

12 


136 

81 

26 

75 

15 

390 

1 

273 

Trace. 


262 

60 

100 

4 

438 

105 

27 

3 


220 


Soda 


116 


Lime 


49 


Magnesia 


103 


Oxide of Iron 


13 


Phosphoric Acid 


495 


Sulphuric Acid 


9 


Silica 


4 


Chlorine . « 










997 


998 


997 


999 


1,009 



These tables will serve to guide the farmer in the 
application of fertilizers to his corn. They indicate 
the proportions in which the various constituents of 
both the grain and the stalk should be found in the 
soil. If, for example, he is about to plant a corn crop 
exclusively for the fodder, he finds that soda and 
silica are required, in the soil, in far larger proportions 
than any other inorganic element, and next to these 



CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF COEN, 79 

phosphoric acid. If, ou the other hand, his corn is 
planted primarily and chiefly for the grain, he learns 
that phosphoric acid is required in a proportion nearly 
equal to that of all tiie other elements together, and 
that next to this in importance are potash and soda. 

An inspection of these tables will also throw some 
light upon the relative feeding values of corn-stalks, 
and the straw of the other included grains, as well as 
upon the comparative nutritive values of the grains 
themselves. 

The proportion of ash contained in any plant or 
grain represents the amount of inorganic matter 
that enters into its composition. When the plant is 
burned, all the other constituents, amounting gener- 
ally to over ninety per cent, of the entire weight, dis- 
appear. We are thus able to determine what grains 
contain the smallest proportion of inorganic matter, 
and are consequently least exhausting to the mineral 
elements of the soil. 

In the following table, Prof. Johnston has given 
the quantity of ash yielded by one thousand pounds 
of each of the plants named : 

Indian Corn 15 lbs. Corn-stalks 50 lbs. 

Wheat 20 " Wheat straw 50 " 

Barley 30 " Barley " 50 " 

Oats 40 " Oat " 60 " 

Eye 20 " Eye " 40 " 

Peas 30 " Pea " 50 " 

The investigations of Dr. Jackson, of Boston, in 
regard to the properties of corn, are equally curious 
and instructive. Among other interesting facts, he 



80 INDIAIT COEN. 

has shown that the proportion of phosphates in each 
variety of maize depends on its assimilating power. 
It was fonnd that of two varieties ot corn (Tuscarora 
and sweet) groioing on the same cob, the former had 
less than half the amount of phosphates contained in 
the latter. 

To those who have not seen the report of Dr. 
Jackson, a brief statement of his further researches 
will perhaps be interesting. 

In most of the yellow varieties, the oil is the seat 
of color, the hull or epidermis being transparent. In 
the white varieties, the oil being colorless and pellu- 
cid, and the hull transparent, the farinaceous portion 
of the kernel, which is white, gives a similar appear- 
ance to the grain. In the haematite varieties the red, 
purple, and blue colors are chiefly derived from the 
epidermis. 

The proportions of oil vary from six to eleven per 
cent. ; the flint corns of the Korth being found to con- 
tain more than the Southern varieties. The oil is 
analogous to animal fat, and is readily converted into 
that substance by a slight change of composition. 

The gluten and mucilage contain nitrogen, which 
is necessary to the formation of fibrous tissue, muscle, 
nervous matter, and brain. 

Starch is convertible also into fat and into the car- 
bonaceous substances of the body, and during its slow 
combustion in the circulation, gives out a portion of 
the heat of animal bodies ; while, in its altered state, 
it goes to form a ]3art of the living frame. Sugar 
acts in a similar manner as a compound of carbon, 



CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF CORN. 81 

hydrogen, and oxygen, in the formation of fat of ani- 
mal bodies. 

From the phosphates the substance of the bones 
and the saline matter of the brains, nerves, and other 
solid and fluid parts of the body are in a great meas- 
ure derived. 

The salts of iron go to the blood, and constitute 
an essential portion of it, whereby it is enabled by 
its changing degrees of oxidation, during its pas- 
sage through the lungs, arteries, and veins, to convey 
oxygen to every part of the body. 

Thus it appears that in each kernel of corn all the 
elements have been deposited by Nature, that are 
essential to a healthful, invigorating, and nutritious 
food. 

4* 



DEVELOPMENT A'NB STRUCTUEE. 

The vital principle of maize is lodged in the em- 
bryo, or rudiment, a small, clearly defined interior 
division of the seed, or kernel. This embryo is the 
starting point of life and growth. It extends from 
the base of the grain upward, about two-thirds of the 
distance toward the crown, and lies in contact with 
the epidermis on one side of the kernel, through 
which it can be distinctly traced by the eye. 

The earliest movement of the seed in developing 
the new plant is termed germination. AVhen the 
plant has advanced so as to form leaves that contrib- 
ute to its growth, the process is termed vegetation. 

Three conditions are essential before germination 
can take place. The presence of heat,* moisture, and 
air is indispensable. After the seed is planted, and 
these agents have had time to exert their quickening 
influence, a small root shoots out, with a very rapid 
growth, from the base of the embryo, and, after 
another interval, the stem rises slowly from its apex. 

* 48° Fahr. is about the limit of temperature, below which corn will 
not germinate. 



DEVELOPMENT AND STEUCTUKE. 83 

The progress made by the roots during the first few 
days is quite remarkable. They not unfrequently 
attain to a length of fifteen or eighteen inches before 
the stem has made three inches above the surface of 
the ground. 

From the relative positions of the stem and the 
early roots, the former springing from the crown, and 
the latter from the base of the embryo, it is evident 
that the most natural and favorable position of the 
grain for incipient growth is with the base downward 
and the crown above. When this condition is re- 
versed, as continually occurs in planting, the stem 
and root are each compelled to describe a curve, 
sometimes equal to a half circle, in order to acquire 
their normal position. "When this position is reached, 
if the seed should be turned over, the stem and root 
would again promptly bend themselves through an- 
other curve, to recover once more the situation natu- 
ral and indispensable to their proper growth. 

That the position of the kernel when planted is 
calculated to affect the progress of germination is an 
obvious and natural conclusion. The author has 
found, in some experiments having reference to this 
point, that grains planted in an inverted position are 
retarded from ten to fifteen hours in the time of their 
appearance above ground, as compared with others 
planted in an upright position. 

As soon as the germination of the seed begins, the 
stem, obeying a natural instinct, springs upward tow- 
ard the sunlight, while the roots, equally obedient 
to an instinct of their nature, travel downward into 



84 INDIAN COEN. 

the earth, and away from each other, spreading them- 
selves in every direction, and penetrating many thou- 
sand cubic inches of soil, in quest of nutriment to 
satiate a voracious appetite that began with their 
existence, and will only be extinguished at their death. 

The natural proclivity of the roots of plants to 
push their way into congenial darkness, and of the 
stem to seek the presence of the light, may be illus- 
trated by a simple experiment. One, among several 
tried by the writer, for the purpose of observing the 
early tendencies of germination, gave a very clear re- 
sult. Having planted some grains of maize in glass 
jars filled with earth, the kernels being arranged 
against the side of the glass, one of these jars was 
placed in a dark room, and the other exposed to the 
light of a window. 

After an interval of about thirty-six hours the 
roots began to show themselves, and after another 
brief interval the stems made their appearance. 
The only peculiarity about the latter was, that in 
the jar exposed to the light, they assumed, before 
reaching the surface of the soil, the green tint pe- 
culiar to the stalk and leaf above ground, while in 
the other, they remained nearly white after rising 
above the soil. In the jar from which the light had 
been excluded, the roots formed rapidly and abun- 
dantly against the side of the glass, while in the other 
jar they retreated from the glass almost in a direct 
line, evidently shunning the light, and seeking to hide 
themselves in the recesses of the soil. 

When in the progress of its growth, the stem of 



DEVELOPMENT AND STKUCTUBE. 85 

the corn plant has struggled up from its earthy bed, 
and approaches the point where germination ceases 
and vegetation begins, it pushes its bodkin-shaped 
cylinder of compact foliage through the surface of the 
earth, changing its color at once from white to green, 
and opening out its uppermost leaves to enter upon 
their function of respiration. 

As the growth advances, other rolled-up leaves are 
successively developed from the crown of the stalk, un- 
til the tassel is fully formed and the plant assumes its 
perfect outline. The leaves grow broader and longer as 
they rise, one above the other, from the base of the stalk 
more than half way to the summit ; after which they 
gradually and uniformly diminish in size to the upper- 
most leaf which is near the tassel. " One leaf grows 
from every joint in the stalk, but in such a way as to 
alternate sides. The hrst formed leaf, and after this 
every leaf in regular succession, clasps the stalk closely 
until it approaches near to the under side of the leaf 
above ; after this it grows out from the stalk, and a beau- 
tiful fan-like appearance is at length produced which 
is not equalled by any other annual plant cultivated 
for the value of its fruit." — Farmer's Encydopcedia. 

The stems on which the ears are formed proceed 
fi'om the joints, commencing usually at the one near- 
est the ground. The number of ears on a stalk vary 
from one or two, to five or six, in rare cases reaching 
as high as seven or eight -; though it is not often that 
more than two or three ears are matured on the same 
stalk. The ranks of grain on the ear vary in number 
from eight to thirty-six, being always an even number, 



86 rNBIAN CORN. 

and the product of single ears is about five ounces on 
a general average, thougli occasionally reaching over 
a pound. The dimensions of the ear range, according 
to the variety of grain, from less than two inches in 
length in some of the dwarf varieties, to over sixteen 
inches in the largest, and sometimes reaching, in the 
gourd-seed variety, more than half that number of 
inches in circumference. 

From the extremity of each ear flows out a cluster 
of soft and silk-like fibres falling like drapery over the 
husks. These little threads are charged with one of 
the most important functions in the whole economy of 
the plant. Each fibre proceeds from a separate grain, 
and every grain on the ear has a fibre to represent 
it. The Farina fecundans is a fine, light, powdery 
substance dislodged by the wind from the flowering 
tassel tliat crowns the stalk. This powder or pollen, 
descending from the tassel, lights upon the silken 
drapery of the ear, and the rudimental grains are 
thereby fertilized. In the absence of either fibre or 
pollen, or even in the failure of their contact, the re- 
sult would be, not an ear of corn, but a naked cob. 

How curious and inscrutable is this recondite pro- 
cess ! How full of mystery indeed are all the pro- 
cesses of vegetation ; and how Immiliating to the tow- 
ering faculties of man to reflect, that though his mind 
may range at will through infinite space, measuring 
spheres and orbits and periods of revolution with 
amazing accuracy, penetrating sidereal systems on the 
confines of creation, and aspiring to embrace the uni- 
verse in its grasp ; yet when he walks abroad in the 



DEVELOPMENT AND 8TEUCTT7KE. 87 

vegetable kingdom of his own little planet, at every 
footfall he treads upon a mystery, and on every side 
his intellect is overmatched by each tiny flower and 
every blade of corn ! 

The wide range of climate in which Indian corn 
can be grown to maturity necessarily occasions a 
marked difference in the length of its season, or the 
time it requires for ripening. This period varies from 
two months to six or seven ; and some precocious 
kinds, in high latitudes, are found to ripen in less 
than sixty days. 

The average rate of daily increase in the size of 
the stalk, during the period of growth, differs with 
the climate, the soil, and the variety of grain. Li 
some observations made by the author, the growth 
was found to be seventy inches in iifty days, being an 
average of one and four-tenth inches per day. The 
greatest increase noticed in a single week was twenty- 
two inches, and in a single day four and a half inches. 
Some of the largest varieties, especially in warmer 
latitudes, would probably show a more rapid growth 
than this. 

But an increase of even four inches in twenty-four 
hours, though small when compared with some other 
instances of vegetable growth, is yet, in one aspect, 
curious and remarkable. The movement of this in- 
crease, which is equal to an inch in six hours, slow as it 
seems comparatively, may be converted, under a pow- 
erful lens, into a velocity of two inches, or more, per 
minute — a rate of motion easily detected by the eye. 

In thus bringing the movement of vegetable growth 



88 INDIAN CORN. 

under the distinct perception of one of the senses, the 
mind seems to come into closer contact with the mys- 
teries of vegetable life. 

The height to which this cereal is capable of at- 
taining is exceedingly variable. It is determined in 
part by the soil, in some degree by the climate, but 
depends still more upon the variety of grain. It 
ranges from less than two feet to over fifteen, and in 
tropical climates a still larger and ranker growth is 
not unusual. 

The roots, in a deep, mellow, and fertile soil, are 
capable of penetrating to a depth of over two and a 
half feet, and horizontally have been traced to a length 
nearly equalling the height of the stalk. The prop- 
roots appear at that stage of the growth when the 
increasing size and weight of the stalk, and the ac- 
cession of tassel and ears, render such support need- 
ful. They usually spring from the first joint above 
the ground, taking an oblique direction toward the 
earth, which they soon reach and penetrate, spreading 
through it in search of nutriment, and anchoring the 
stalk more securely to the soil. 

The juices that nourish the plant are absorbed 
from the earth through the fine and thread-like fibres 
of the roots, passing in succession through the roots 
of large size until they reach the stalk, from which 
they are transmitted to every portion, and to the 
smallest extremities of the plant. From the leaf-stalk 
this sap is distributed in very minute veins through 
the whole expanse of the leaf, which brings it in con- 
tact with light and air. The watery portion of the 



DEVELOPMENT AND STRUCTUKE. 89 

sap is here in part exhaled, while carbon and oxvgen 
are alternately imbibed and given off'. " In the day- 
time," says Professor Johnston, " whether in the sun- 
shine or in the shade, the green leaves are continually 
absorbing carbonic acid from the air, and giving off 

oxygen gas When night comes, this process 

is reversed, and they begin to absorb oxygen and to 
give off carbonic acid. But the latter process does 
not go on so rapidly as the former ; so that, on the 
whole, plants, when growing, gain a large portion of 
carbon ti'om the air." Thus does respiration keep up 
its unceasing work through the leaves or lungs, and, 
by appropriating from the air with nice discrimina- 
tion precisely what the plant requires, and rejecting 
whatever is needless or hurtful, purify it from noxious 
elements, and minister to its healthful growth. 

In whatever light, then, we contemplate this inter- 
esting plant, whether in its curious structure, or in the 
processes of its rapid and vigorous growth, or in the 
flowiug and graceful outlines of its foliage, or in its 
tall, erect, and majestic stature, we equally recognize 
the hand of its Author, who has attested its value to 
man, by impressing upon it the stamp of nobility and 
clothing it in forms of beauty. 



SEED. 

I. Selection of Seed eor Planting. — That tLe 
quality of the seed planted by the farmer has a mate- 
rial influence on the quality and amount of the re- 
sulting crop is a matter that every practical man well 
understands. The importance, therefore, of giving 
the most careful attention to the selection of the seed 
is perfectly obvious. No man who neglects this essen- 
tial point can place any reliance upon his crop. If 
his seed-corn is not properly sorted out, he cannot be 
certain of its kind, its value, or its results. If he docs 
not know what lie plants, how can he be expected to 
know what he is going to reap ? His crop will be a 
lottery, with more blanks than prizes, and he can 
form no reasonable calculation in regard to it, either 
as to quality, certainty, or amount. 

On the other hand, the man who in due season 
gives thoughtful heed to the selection of his seed, 
spending an ungrudged hour in his cornfield at the 
right time to secure the most perfect ears of grain, as 
the germ of a future crop, will be morally certain of 
at least a reasonable success. He has made a good 



SEED. 91 

beginning for another season. The first step is well 
taken and in the right direction. 

The following rules for the selection of seed-corn, 
suggested by the experience of practical cultivators, 
will perhaps be of service to the farmer as a guide in 
makins: his selection : 



EULES FOE THE SELECTION OF SEED-COElSr. 

1. The most essential point to start with is a good 
variety. JSTo coiTect farmer will plant or use on his 
farm any but the best grain. If, therefore, the corn 
you have been raising is an inferior kind, abandon it 
at once, and procure the best variety that will succeed 
in your locality. Begin with the purest and most 
perfect seed you can obtain, and you will easily be 
able to keep it pure, and make it continually better 
by attending to these rules. 

2. Select your seed from those stalks that have the 
most ears, taking the best from each stalk. 

3. The earliest ripe in the field is to be preferred, 
unless otherwise objectionable. 

4. Those stalks that bear their ears nearest the 
ground are the best to choose from, provided the ears 
are right. 

5. Select large, fair ears, with kernels of a bright, 
clear color. 

6. Prefer those ears in which the rows are most 
regular, and the grain most uniform in size. 

Y. Choose those ears that taper the least, having 
their butts very little larger than their tips. 



92 INDIAN CORN. 

8. Of several ears on the same stalk, those that 
grow nearest the ground are to be preferred, if they 
have the other requisite points. 

9. Select snch ears as grow upon the shortest foot- 
stalk. 

10. Those ears tliat are well iilled out at the tips, 
with the grain covering the extreme end of the cob, 
are much to be preferred. 

11. From each ear take the central grains, rejecting 
tips and butts. It has been satisfactorily proved that 
the kernels near the ends of the cob give a smaller 
yield and an inferior grain. 

12. If you plant seed not raised in your own 
vicinity, let it be from a colder rather than a warmer 
region. 

13. It is an excellent plan to appropriate a small 
piece of ground for raising seed-corn, at a distance 
from the main crop. In doing this, select a warm 
situation, free from excessive moisture, and let the 
ground be subsoiled or trenched, thoroughly pulver- 
ized, and well manured. Plant in hills foui' or five 



feet apart each way, with six to eight grains in a hill, 
thinning out afterwards to two or three stalks. The 
advantage of planting more than you intend to leave 
is not merely that it provides for worms and accidents, 
but it gives a chance for preference or selection. 
When the corn is up eight or ten inches, you will often 
find a material diflerence between the best and poor- 
est stalks. You thus have an opportunity of selecting 
the best. The greater the number you have to choose 
from, the greater is the chance for perfection in those 



SEED. 93 

selected. Your seed-corn being now well planted and 
fairly started, with proper attention and care in tlie 
further management of it, you cannot fail to secure a 
fair proportion of large and beautiful ears of perfect 
grain. 

By following up this system, the farmer will dis- 
cover, at the end of a very few years, that his corn 
has gained many fold in yield, and still more in qual- 
ity. The advantage attending a discriminating selec- 
tion of seed is well established by the uniform results 
of experience, and it seems incredible that any cultiva- 
tor can be indifferent to a matter of so much conse- 
quence. He may bestow any amount of labor upon 
the tillage of his field, and any amount of expense 
upon the manure, yet if he plants an inferior grain, 
he can only gather an inferior crop. The difference 
between thirty or forty bushels per acre, and sixty or 
seventy bushels, may very possibly prove to be, in 
practice, a mere question of seed. Whether his crop 
will return him ten per cent, or fifty per cent, on the 
cost of it, may depend entirely upon the single hour 
that he did or did not employ in selecting his grain 
for planting. If such considerations as these, that go 
right into the farmer's pocket, are not sufficient to 
arrest his attention and influence his practice, his in- 
difference may indeed be considered hopelessly incu- 
rable. 

II. Prepakation of Seed fok PLANTma, — It is a 
very general practice, with the best farmers, to steep 
the seed of this grain before planting, and the prac- 
tice seems to be justified by reason and experience. 



94 INDIAN COEN. 

It is attended with a twofold advantage : in quicken- 
ing and promoting germination, and in offering a 
means of protection against the earliest and most 
dangerous enemies. There are various liquid prepa- 
rations employed for this purpose. Some of the more 
usual are solutions of saltpetre, guano, copperas, wood 
ashes, etc. The sulphate, nitrate, and muriate of am- 
monia, and chloride of lime have also been used with 
advantage, as well as urine, and other forms of liquid 
manure. These solutions, however, require to be 
used with caution, and most of them should be made 
very dilute. 

Some cultivators are in the habit of employing 
powerful solutions, and others recommend to raise 
them to a very unusual temperature, as if they imag- 
ined that some extraordinary effort in starting the 
crop were going to have the effect of a charm all the 
way through. But the object of steeping is to pro- 
mote, not merely a quick but a healthy germination ; 
and this is not to be accomplished by the use of ex- 
cessive stimulants. A morbid growth, however rapid, 
is no ultimate advantage. The results of experience 
combine to prove that in this, as in every other stage 
of the growth of corn, there is nothing gained by 
doing violence to the processes of Nature. 

Some solutions are more effectual than others in 
protecting the grain against its enemies. Saltpetre 
and copperas are each considered good for this pur- 
pose, but a moderate coating of tar is found to be 
still better, and this practice is now pretty generally 
adopted. 



SEED. 95 

The late Judge Buel recommended a moderate 
solution of crude saltpetre, to which, he added half a 
pint of tar for eight quarts of seed ; the tar previously 
diluted with a quart of warm water. The mass is to 
be well stirred, and when the corn is taken out, let as 
much plaster be added as will adhere to the grain. 
The experience of years, he adds, will warrant me in 
confidently recommending this as a protection for the 
seed. 

Coal or gas tar is now preferred by many farmers, 
and when used should be limited in quantity and ap- 
phed as evenly as possible. Mr. G. Haines, of J^ew 
Jersey, in writing to the Country Gentleman^ re- 
marks : " I have used both kinds of tar for that pur- 
pose, but for the last ten years have preferred gas or 
coal tar, because it is much more easily applied, and 
equally safe. If the corn is made jet black with it, 
it may not grow, but there is no occasion for that. 
Take a paddle and dip from the tar to the com once 
or twice, then stir till the corn is all coated, and 
appears through the tar of a yellowish brown color. 
It may easily be tested by throwing a little to the 
poultry. The crow blackbirds have about twenty 
nests in the pine and cedars of my yard each spring ; 
but if my planted corn was tarred (which is gener- 
ally the case), I have not the slightest objection to it." 

Mr. G. F. Saxton, of Williston, Yt., writes to the 
American Institute Farmers' Club as follows : " You 
are mistaken in supposing coal tar wiU injure seed 
corn. I have used it for five years upon seed for sev- 
eral acres annually with perfect success, . as follows : 



96 INDIAN CORN. 

Soak the seed ten or twelve hours, drain off the water, 
apply the tar immediately in proportions of half a 
pint of tar to one bushel of corn, and stir until coated 
equally. If the corn is cold it is better to put hot 
water with the tar to thin it, as much water as tar, as 
it will be easier mixing. If this mode is followed, I 
will warrant the seed to grow as well as without tar." 

In the further discussion by the Club, it was re- 
marked : " "VVe are glad to be set right by a practical 
man in relation to the use of coal tar. "We will also 
state in this coimection, that it is recommended as a 
good preventive of the ravages of worms and bugs. 

"Adrian Bergen said he always soaked and 
tarred his corn, and believes the tar some protection 
against crows as well as insects. 

" John G. Bergen said the trouble about using 
coal tar is that those who have complained of its in- 
juring the seed have used too much. The quantity 
recommended by Mr. Saxton is quite sufficient for the 
purpose for which it is applied, yet not enough to in- 
jure the germ. To obviate the trouble of seed stick- 
ing to the hands, mix it with dry ashes, plaster, or 
dust." 



TIME TO PLANT. 

Thk proper time to plant corn depends on circum- 
stances so many and various, that no specific rule can 
be laid down on the subject. It differs according to 
the variety of grain planted, the character of the soil, 
the climate, the season, etc. Between the extreme 
northern and southern sections of the country, the 
difference of time amounts to three or four months. 
In some parts of Maine and Minnesota tlie usual sea- 
son for planting is June ; while in Florida or Louisi- 
ana it is usually March. Throughout the Middle 
States and most of New England, the period consid- 
ered safest, as a general rule, is the middle of May. 
Yet such is the difference of seasons, that in some 
years a crop planted during the last week in April, 
and in other years the first week in June, would give 
a better result than if planted at the middle of May, 
showing a difference of more than a month in the 
same latitude, produced by a difference of seasons. 

Thus it appears that the vicissitudes of the weather 
in different years have a more disturbing effect on the 
time for planting than any of the other causes. In 
5 



98 INDIAN CORN. 

fact this question of fluctuating weather, of early or 
late season, is after all the only real difficulty in the 
case, and the one on which all the others depend. 
The other contingencies are made so by this. They 
are variable, but all of them are determinate. If, 
therefore, the question of soil, of latitude, and all the 
other variable elements could be separated from the 
vicissitudes of temperature, the time for planting corn, 
so far as relates to them, might be reduced to fixed 
rules. 

It is true that latitudes vary, and each differ- 
ent degree requires a different period for planting. 
Yet every farmer knows that his latitude is a fixed, 
assignable figure, and that it always remains the 
same. It differs from that of other men, but for him it 
is unchanging. The same is true in regard to soils. 
A sandy loam may require a period for planting dif- 
ferent from that which would suit a tenacious clay. 
But the farmer who has a sandy loam one year, will 
not find it changed into clay the year following. 
Though soils differ for different individuals, yet for 
each man they remain the same. So also in regard 
to all the other circumstances affecting the ques- 
tion. 

Could we, then, reduce the inconstancy of the weath- 
er to a condition of like certainty, or bring it within 
determinate limits, it would be quite possible to assign 
a precise day of the month for each kind of soil, for 
every variety of corn, and for every degree of latitude, 
which might be adopted in planting with perfect 
safety. We might lay down an accurate time-table 



TIME TO PLANT. 99 

for planting corn that would apply to the whole coun- 
try, and meet the case of every farmer. 

But, unfortunately, the question of season is not 
determinate. Temperature rises and falls according 
to no settled or ascertained law. Frost comes and 
goes apparently at the dictate of its own humor ; and 
the weather is capricious to a proverb, and filled with 
elements of uncertainty. Man has learned to explore 
the earth, and detect the causes of its fertility, to reg- 
ulate its production, and make it obedient to his pur- 
pose. But he cannot subdue the atmosphere to his 
will, nor assign limits to its phenomena. He can 
classify all the plants in the vegetable kingdom, and 
tell with accuracy their times and seasons ; but he can- 
not reduce storm and sunshine to a system, nor bring 
the clouds up to time. He may subdue the most 
incorrigible soil, but he cannot subjugate the ther- 
mometer. He can dominate the mysterious energy 
of the electric fluid, compelling it to traverse the bed 
of the ocean, or to circulate around the globe on aerial 
wires to give swift wings to his flashing thought ; yet 
can he not arrest for a single hour, nor even predict, 
the fall of the mercury that shall blast a thousand 
crops. 

Thus science becomes the sport, and man the vic- 
tim of fluctuating weather. Subject to no fixed laws, 
and recognizing no assignable limits, it defies alike all 
human calculation and human control. It comes 
into the arrangements of husbandry with the reckless 
power of an autocrat, setting aside appointed days, 
and thwarting plans innumerable. 



100 INDIAN COEN. 

On this subject, therefore, the farmer is left to 
depend very much on his own resources. Tet in all 
this he finds no occasion for despondency. He finds 
that a sound judgment carefully exercised in the light 
of the experience of former years, and guided by those 
hints and indications that Nature is ever presenting 
to inquisitive minds, will nearly always shape out for 
him the course of safety and success. In settling prac- 
tically the question when to plant his corn, he ban- 
ishes from his mind all those maxims that embody 
their entire wisdom in a specified date, or in a pre- 
scribed stage of the moon, and examines the condition 
of the soil and the state of the vegetable world for 
traces and indications more to be relied on. 

" There is a right and a test time for planting 
corn," says a very sensible writer in the Country Gentle- 
man, " and by employing just that time for the pur- 
pose, a farmer may all the more confidently calcu- 
late, if he do not fail or err somewhere else, on raising 
a maximum crop, not only of the grain but of the 
stalks also. And the right and best time is to be dis- 
covered, not by the almanac, nor by the practice of 
neighbors, who ' think that from the 10th to the 20th 
of May is the proper time for planting,' nor by blindly 
copying after some one whose whim it may be to 
plant ' seldom or never later than the fifth day ' of 
May, but simply by observing the progress of vege- 
tation in soils resembling that in which the planting 
is to be done. Vegetation will start sooner in sandy 
loams, and all such soils as contain much sand or 
humus, than in those in which clay predominates. 



TIME TO PLAJSH". 101 

Making allowance for this fact, the right and best 
time for planting corn, let the latitude and the local- 
ity be what it may, is to be discovered and determined 
by observing the natural vegetation. Whenever 
there is good reason to think that the ground is warm 
enough to cause a speedy germination and growth, 
then is the time to plant. And to ascertain this, I 
know of no rule so safe and sure as that which Judge 
Buel taught me and others many years ago, namely, 
to plant when the apple is bursting its blossom buds." 
But human judgment is not infallible ; and if the 
husbandman is not always sure of his time in plant- 
ing ; if, notwithstanding the utmost care and attention, 
he discovers that his grain has been committed to the 
earth a little too soon, or a little too late, he yet finds 
with satisfaction that the consequences are not very 
serious, if he has faithfully pursued the right methods 
in planting, and in the treatment of the soil. The 
careful, well-informed farmer, the man, who, by read- 
ing, adds the experience of others to his own, has 
always a twofold advantage in such eases ; for he is 
not only less likely than others to commit an error, 
but in case an error should be committed, he is meas- 
urably insured against the consequences by the re- 
sources of skill and science which have already been 
employed in his favor, and which are still at his com- 
mand for any emergency that may arise. 



THE SOIL AND ITS CONSTITUENTS. 

Although Indian corn will grow, as already stated, 
on nearly every kind of soil, from the lightest sand to 
the heaviest clay, yet, like other plants and grains, it 
has its preferences, and the interest of the farmer lies 
in consulting these as far as possible. However well 
it may succeed on lands where other grains would fail 
entirely, or make a feeble growth, it is only in a well- 
adapted soil that its best capability is developed. Give 
it a congenial element, in which its hungry roots can 
range and riot without limit, and it will make generous 
returns, that will even exceed the liberality of the 
treatment. " It delights," says Mr. Harris, " in a loose, 
pliable, warm, porous, deep soil, abounding in organic 
matter. It does well on all good wheat soils, yet it 
often does better on soils too light and mucky for 
wheat. It is a gross feeder. We can easily make 
laud too rich for wheat, but I have never yet seen 
any too rich for the production of Indian corn." 

The fertility of soils is determined chiefly by the 
amount of available plant-food contained in them. 
The cereals, and nearly all cultivated plants, are found 



THE SOIL AJSTD ITS CONSTITUENTS. 103 

to contain more or less potash, soda, lime, magnesia, 
silica, alumina, oxide of iron, oxide of manganese, sul- 
plmric acid, phosphoric acid, and chlorine. There 
are three other substances, iodine, bromine, and fluo- 
rine, that enter into the composition of most plants, 
but in proportions so minute as to be of no practical 
importance. The first-named substances, eleven in 
number, constitute the inorganic parts of a plant, or 
that portion which it derives enthely and exclusively 
from the soil. Hence these elements, in one propor- 
tion or another, will be found contained in every well- 
conditioned soil. 

There is evidently, therefore, in corn-culture, but 
one proper course for the farmer to pursue. It de- 
volves upon him to ascertain, as nearly as possible, 
what proportion of the constituents of maize his soil 
already contains, and in what condition these con- 
stituents exist. The latter point is especially import- 
ant ; for whatever be the quantity of them, unless they 
are in such a state that the plant can appropriate 
them, they might nearly as well be entirely absent. 

On this subject the science of chemistry will enlight- 
en the farmer up to a certain point ; beyond that he 
must rely upon other sources of information. Chem- 
ical investigation will determine, with sufficient accu- 
racy, the elements of the soil on the one hand, and the 
elements of maize on the other ; and a comparison of 
these would seem to indicate precisely what ingre- 
dients are yet wanting for the intended crop. But 
this indication is, after all, not entirely reliable. As 
the constituents of plants exist in the soil in various 



104 INDIAN COEN. 

conditions, it is necessary to know, not merely whether 
they are present, but whether, also, they are in that 
peculiar state in which the growing plant can use or 
appropriate them. This condition chemistry has not 
yet been able to discriminate with certainty. It may, 
indeed, determine very correctly what proportion of 
potash, or soda, or phosphoric acid is contained in a 
cubic foot of any given soil ; but what the cultivator 
needs to know is, how much of these substances it 
contains in that state, that will enable them to minister 
to the immediate wants of the plant. 

ISTearly all soils contain, in a state of nature (as 
elsewhere remarked), the principal elements of maize, 
in greater or less quantities, and " some of these ele- 
ments are found in proportions even much larger than 
the plant requires ; but their value depends entirely 
upon their state of adaptation. If, from their peculiar 
combinations or other causes, they are impervious to 
the descending rains, and unfitted to the requirements 
of vegetation, they add nothing to the present fertility 
of the soil. There are fertilizing elements in the ha^rd 
impracticable rock, and the chemist can doubtless de- 
termine the proportions of them ; but it does not fol- 
low that the rock or any part of it is at present an 
available soil for the growth of plants. The analysis 
that reveals the relative quantities of plant-elements, 
leaves the quality and fitness of them still obscure and 
uncertain. 

If the chemist could indeed resolve the soil into its 
elements, with an absolute precision and certainty as 



THE SOIL AND ITS CONSTITUENTS. 105 

to the condition of each ; if, while he tells the farmer 
exactly what proportion of each constituent of corn is 
lodged in every square foot of soil, he could also tell 
him, with the same accuracy and certainty, what part 
of that jprojportion is jperfectly adapted to the iminfie- 
diate use of the gro'uoing plant^ the effect would be 
most remarkable. Fertilization would, be reduced to 
an exact science, and agriculture . would be revolu- 
tionized. 

But though chemistry, that has done so much for 
agriculture and for the other useful arts, has not yet 
achieved this needed revelation, it has before it never- 
theless, like other sciences, a future of indetinite pos- 
sibilities ; and there is some reason to believe that the 
time will arrive when the analysis of the soil will be 
so thorough and complete as to disclose to the culti- 
vator not only this information, but all else in this 
connection that he needs to know. 

But meantime the question remains. How is the 
farmer, while waiting for this chemical illumination, 
to obtain the desired information ? How is he to 
know what amount his soil contains, and what amount 
it lacks of the o/Dailahle elements of his grain ? 

The answer to this inquiry is plain and. simple. 
There is just one method, and only one, of arriving at 
this knowledge — consult Nature. Interrogate the soil 
in a series of experiments. This is an old doctrine, 
but a very sound one, and no less true to-day than it 
was in the time of Lord Bacon. The testimony of 
Nature can always be had, and is always more valuable 
5* 



106 INDIAN COKN. 

than any other. Put your soil on the witness-stand. 
Subject it first to an examination direct, and then to a 
rigorous cross-examination, and you will compel it to 
disclose those reluctant secrets that chemistry has not 
yet arrived at. 



PRACTICAL MODE OF TESTING THE SOIL. 

In order to determine what manures are best 
adapted to a given soil, there is no method more cer- 
tain and successful than to institute a series of trials 
or experiments, which, if well devised and rightly 
conducted, will enable the farmer to understand the 
wants of his land, so as to proceed intelligently in sup- 
plying them. These trials may be, for the most part, 
accomplished in one season, but require for the best 
and the most assured results a longer period. The 
most important experiments may be consummated, 
and the most essential information acquired in a single 
year ; while other results may be added, and those of 
the first season veriiied or corrected, by trials contin- 
ued through a series of subsequent years. 

The farmer who is accustomed to experimenting 
on a limited scale, with reference to but one, or a few 
points of inquiry, does not perhaps realize how greatly 
the results may be enlarged, with but little extra labor. 
By introducing additional elements into the investiga- 
tion, and by properly combining them, the effects may 



108 INDIAN CORN. 

be multiplied in a ratio equally surprising and profit- 
able. 

If, for example, lie plants a portion of his corn- 
field without any manure whatever, and then adds 
separately to other successive portions of the same 
field the various fertilizers in general use, that are 
known to contain one or more of the elements of 
maize, he performs a very usual and doubtless an in- 
structive experiment, and the greater the number and 
variety of fertilizers employed, the larger will be the 
stock of information acquired. 

But this, however useful, is still a limited and par- 
tial investigation. The experiment may easily be ex- 
tended, so as to render it much more comprehensive 
and valuable. Let us suppose the fertilizers he has 
selected to be ten in number. Then, by applying each 
of these in three different and distinct quantities, the 
number of effects will be materially augmented, and 
the knowledge acquired will be greater in amount, as 
well as more accurate and more valuable. He will 
not only discover which are the best manures to ap- 
ply, but will also obtain some useful hints as to the 
proportion of each required. 

Again, he may still further extend and vary this in- 
vestigation, by applying the several fertilizers in three 
different modes, viz. : 1, by ploughing them into the 
ground before planting ; 2, by placing them in the 
hill or drill at the time of planting ; and 3, by com- 
bining these two methods into one. This would again 
multiply the whole number of results, and greatly in- 
crease the total sum of acquired knowledge. If the 



PRACTICAL MODE OF TESTING THE SOIL. 109 

number of fertilizers, wliicli is assumed to be ten, be 
multiplied by three, and that product by three again, 
it will show how many points of information would 
arise from such a combination of experiments. 

To make this clearer, we will suppose that he ap- 
propriates to each fertilizer several rows through 
the field, amounting to two square rods of ground ; 
making, when the fertihzers are all applied, twenty 
square rods. He next applies, on the adjoining twenty 
rods, the same fertilizers in larger proportions ; and 
again, on a similar section, the same fertilizers once 
more in still larger quantities. He now has sixty rods 
planted, and thirty different conditions of manure. 
Thus far, however, the applications have all been 
made in one way only. The manures have been 
ploughed into the soil before planting. On the next 
sixty rods, therefore, he duplicates the amount already 
planted, making no change, except that the manures 
are now applied in the drill. Finally, he plants a 
third section of sixty rods, in the same manner as be- 
fore, with the exception that the fertilizers are applied 
differently, by combining the two previous methods 
into one. He now has his corn growing under ninety 
different conditions of fertilization, on one hundred 
and eighty rods, or a fraction over one acre. 

In whatever way these experiments may each one 
terminate, if they have been rightly performed, his 
object is gained. The results, it is true, may not all 
be equally definite and certain ; this is not to be ex- 
pected. Yet he derives some hint, or information, 
more or less plain and positive, from each separate 



110 INDIAN COKN. 

application, while in many instances the instruction 
is clear and unmistakable as language can make it. 

Some of the fertilizers employed will perhaps add 
nothing to the yield ; showing that the constituents of 
corn contained in them were already jpresent in the 
soil in suitable amount o/md condition. Others will 
add to the product in various proportions ; some of 
them increasing the yield probably fifty per cent, or 
more as compared with the product on the unmanured 
ground. 

A careful comparison of all the results, and of 
the ratio they bear to that of the unfertilized sec- 
tion of his field, will teach him which of all the fer- 
tilizers employed contain those precise elements of 
corn that were either absent from the soil, or, if pres- 
ent, were deficient in quantity or availability. 

Before this trial was made, he did not know, and 
could not have predicted, the precise effect in any one 
instance out of ninety. He now has, if the experi- 
ments have been carefully and axicurately executed, 
an intelligible result for each condition. With proper 
caution in making his deductions, he may derive from 
this experimental crop an amount of instruction and 
practical knowledge that could not have been ob- 
tained from any other source. 

Even though some of the results should appear 
doubtful, and some of his deductions prove erroneous, 
there would still be a clear and decided preponder- 
ance of positive and reliable information that would 
pay him many times over for the extra time and 
labor it has cost him. 



PEACTICAL MODE OF TESTING THE SOIL. Ill 

He may not have achieved a very remarkable 
crop, as to the aggregate number of bushels, but he 
has accomplished a more important object. He has 
not been aiming at a large present yield. He has 
merely been laying the foundation for many boun- 
tiful and remunerating crops during many years to 
come. Still the chances' of a large product are all 
in his favor, even for the current year. 

It is not only probable, but nearly certain, that, 
while he has been solving questions of permanent 
importance to his farm and to his future crops, he 
has at the same time obtained more than an aver- 
age yield. While gathering an ample harvest of corn, 
he has gathered along with it a still more ample har- 
vest of valuable information. 

The trial crop here described, and the experiments 
embraced in it, are suggested, as one out of many 
plans, that will doubtless occur to the mind of the 
practical farmer. Tliose who find the subject of suffi- 
cient interest, will very likely be able to improve upon 
these hints. But the one essential idea that the au- 
thor desires to impress upon the mind of the farming 
reader is, that the system here illustrated is capable 
of great expansion, and of an infinite variety in its 
application. 

Single and isolated experiments, however useful 
in themselves, give no adequate idea of the increased 
efiect that may be produced by a series of them, 
when ingeniously combined and accurately performed. 
In the hands of a skilful cultivator, a true method 
or system of experiments may become an invaluable 



112 nroiAN CORN. 

instrument of knowledge and of power; for there 
is scarcely any kind or degree of needed information 
which it may not be made to develop, and few 
practical problems in agriculture which it will not 
help to solve. 



PKEPAKATIOK OF THE SOIL. 

In preparing the ground for com, the subject re- 
quiring the farmer's earliest and most careful atten- 
tion is disintegration. To impart to the soil, before 
planting, a suitable tilth and mellowness, by mechani- 
cal processes, is an indispensable preliminary. The 
means of doing this, and the methods practised, are 
various, and of different degrees of merit ; but the 
amount of disintegration they are capable of impart- 
ing is the great and leading consideration. The in- 
strument, or the practice that will most completely 
effect the pulverization of the soil, carrying the sub- 
division of its particles, nearest to the point of ulti- 
mate possibility, is the one to be adopted by the cul- 
tivator. 

In every branch of husbandry, yet in none per- 
haps so much as in corn culture, the thorough re- 
duction of the earth by mechanical division and 
subdivision is a matter of primary and fundamental 
importance. 

There are, it is true, exceptional cases requiring a 



114 rcroiAN CORN. 

different treatment, but deep, thorough, and repeated 
ploughing is the great general rule, and the exceptions 
are comparatively few. 

Land that is naturally sandy and porous, with 
a subsoil of like structure, rendering it incapable of 
retaining manure, requires, of course, another meth- 
od. It demands, in fact, not so much a different 
mode of culture, as an entire change in its con- 
dition. A liberal addition of clay, ashes, and marl 
of the right kind, either or all in due proportions, fol- 
lowed with stable-manure and green crops ploughed 
under, would in time reconstruct such a soil, and 
would probably pay well for the process. But apart 
from such instances as this, it is perfectly safe to ad- 
vise a more frequent, careful, and accurate use of the 
plough than that commonly practised. 

If, on the other hand, the soil intended for com is 
naturally wet, with a subsoil impermeable to water, it 
must be under-drained. This treatment is simply a 
matter of necessity, and cannot be superseded by any 
other. Even in most of the ordinary soils, it is the 
opinion of many farmers that under-draining pays 
well in the long run. But, in such a case as the one 
under consideration, it is not merely advantageous, it 
is indispensable ; and to attempt to raise corn, or any 
other important crop without it, is a criminal waste 
of time and labor. 

The WorMng Farmer^ for May, 1861, has some 
useful suggestions for the treatment of the ground in 
corn culture. In reference to the first breaking up of 
the soil, the writer remarks : 



PEEPAHATION OF THE SOIL. 115 

" This should be performed by running the surface 
plough to full depth, and. following with a lifting sub- 
soil plough, the latter propelled by a separate team, 
with its beam in the bottom of the furrow left by the 
surface plough, and not skating along the surface, 
merely scratching or slightly disturbing the bottom of 
the furrow. This lifting, subsoil plough not only 
under-cuts the land side so as to enable the next fur- 
row-slice to break off more deeply and pulverize more 
completely, but at the same time it lifts the previously 
turned furrow-slice for a short distance, perfectly dis- 
integrating its particles ; for the resolution of its 
forces being upward and outward, renders all the 
soil above it, like that above the mole-track, perfectly 
divided." 

Nearly all the large crops we have any account of, 
have been produced, to a large extent, by thorough 
tillage. Manures are doubtless highly useful„and have 
their share in producing results. But it is tillage, 
beyond any doubt, that gives to fertilizers their great- 
est value and effect. 

The true philosophy of thoroughly aerating the 
soil, so that it may not merely admit, but invite, the 
approach of air and water to the growing roots, is suf- 
ficiently shown in the fact, that the chemical elements 
of water and of air constitute ninety per cent, or more 
of nearly all growing plants. 

In addition to this, it is to be remembered, 
that the plant-food already in the soil, as well as 
that applied by the farmer, depends upon the action 



116 INDIAN CORN. 

of these same agents for its availability and nutri- 
tive effect. Of all the fertilizing elements con- 
tained in the earth, or added to it, there is not one 
that can produce its proper and legitimate result in 
supplying food to the growing plants without the pres- 
ence and influence of either air, or water, or of both 
combined. 

These facts are well understood, and clearly indi- 
cate the necessity of facilitating, by every possible 
means, the access of descending rains and of atmos- 
pheric influence to the roots of growing corn. But in 
order to accomplish this, the earth must be brought 
to a proper condition before the grain is planted. 
The soil must be made mellow and porous, by 
deep and searching processes of pulverization often 
r.'jpeated. 

■•' It cannot, then, l}e too frequently or forcibly sug- 
gested to the agriculturist that, the more he contrib- 
utes to break up, crush, grind, triturate, and subdivide 
the particles of the soil, before planting, so much more 
does he cooperate with Nature, and assist her generous 
efforts to return him a liberal yield. 

In thus dwelling, with some repetition, upon what 
is deemed an important subject, we may perhaps weary 
the patience, or provoke the severity, of some critical 
reader ; yet such is the consequence of this principle, 
and such the extent of its influence, that if we could 
thereby impress it more effectively on the minds of our 
cultivators, we would not hesitate to employ yet a 
dozen more terms to express the same idea, did the 



PREPARATION OF THE SOIL. 117 

language contain them ; for there is no reason to doubt 
that, if a more thorough system of tillage were prac- 
tised by every one of our four million farmers, it would 
add to the corn-crop of this country, in a single season, 
many million bushels. 



MANUKES. 

Theee is no grain crop in this country tliat so well 
remunerates the cultivator for a liberal application of 
manure as Indian corn. Although it is capable of a 
fair and sometimes even a generous yield on indiffer- 
ent or unmanured soils, it is but short-sighted econo- 
my, on the part of the husbandman, to take advantage 
<^f this fact, by attempting to raise it without enriching 
*ohe land. If the object of the agriculturist is to get 
the largest possible return for the manure applied to 
his ground, he will effect it more certainly by a gen- 
erous allowance to the maize crop than in any other 
way. 

The fertilizing materials that may be usefully ap- 
plied to the cornfield are so numerous, so various, 
and many of them so readily procured, that no cul- 
tivator is justifiable in neglecting to apply them on a 
liberal scale. 

The standard manure for Indian corn, as well as 
for other crops, is undoubtedly that of the farm-yard 
and the stall. Nature has ordained that domestic 
animals, which consume so largely the products of the 
earth, shall in some measure compensate the propria- 



MAKUKES. 119 

tor, by supplying him with the best and surest means 
of restoring its fertility. Yet this supply is not alone 
sufficient for the requirements of the soil, and the 
farmer finds it necessary to have recourse to other 
sources, which are fortunately neither few nor inac- 
cessible. 

After exhausting the contents of the cattle-yard 
and the compost heap, or, what is perhaps still better, 
in connection with these, he may employ, and often 
with great advantage, some of the various fertilizers 
in the market. In doing so, however, great caution 
is needed to avoid the impositions continually prac- 
tised by the venders of worthless adulterations. There 
are several of the commercial manures composed of 
such articles as nearly all farmers either have or can 
readily and cheaply procure ; and many have adopted 
the habit of preparing these on their own premises. 
There is no good reason why this practice should not 
be universal. The man who uses fertilizers prepared 
by himself is always sure of their quality, and will 
generally find them less expensive. 

The following enumeration embraces most of the 
fertilizing materials in general use for the corn crop 
as well as some that are not usually employed, though 
they might be, in many cases, with advantage : 

1. The manure of the farm-taed, comprising the 
excrement, solid and liquid, of horses, cattle, and 
other stock, and also the decomposed vegetable mat- 
ter combined with them. The latter includes straw, 
weeds, leaf-mould, swamp-muck, and every variety 
of vegetable substance, which, if well managed, will 



120 JKDUK COEN. 

not only largely increase the aggregate amount, but 
will be fully equal in value to the best animal 
manure. 

2. PouDEETTE, Or the various preparations of night- 
soil. This is a highly concentrated and valuable fer- 
tilizer. The simplest, and perhaps the best mode of 
preparing it, is to combine with the night-soil a lib- 
eral proportion of dry mould, charcoal-powder, or 
sulphate of lime (gypsum). These may all three be 
added with excellent effect. Home-made poudrette, 
when rightly prepared, is much superior to the com- 
mercial article. 

3. The various Guanos, of which the Peruvian is 
by far the best. The powerful nature of this fertilizer 
requires caution in the use of it. In solution it is 
found useful for steeping, and is also applied as a 
liquid manure. 

4. Bone-dust. — The value of this fertilizer, for *m- 
mediate use, depends in a great measure on its being 
finely ground. By the usual mode of grinding it, the 
effect, though more lasting, is comparatively slight the 
first season. The Flour of Bone is a finer preparation 
than the other, and though more costly, is far better 
for immediate effect. 

5. SuPEE-PHOsPHATE OF LiME, or vitriolized bones. 
The immediate value of bone-dust is increased, and 
the effect rendered much more speedy, by converting 
it into super-phosphate of lime. This is done by add- 
ing to the ground bones from one-half to one-third 
of their weight of sulphuric acid (according to the 
strength and purity of the acid), with a like quantity 



MANUEES. 121 

of water. But an eqaal effect may be obtained, at a 
less cost, by decomposing ground bones with green 
manure or swamp-muck. 

6. Wood Ashes, leached and unleached. The 
former, though less valuable, still retain most of the 
constituents of the unleached, having lost only a por- 
tion of their soda and potash. In either form, ashes 
are a most useful fertilizer, and adapted to nearly 
every description of soil. 

7. Plaster, or sulphate of lime. Plaster is the 
name given to ground gypsum. It is generally bene- 
ficial to corn, and sometimes in a remarkable degree ; 
its effect depending very much on the character of the 
soil. 

8. Lime, oxide of calcium. That obtained from 
burnt shells is by many considered superior to any 
other. The best results from the use of lime are found 
in soils that abound in vegetable matter. This mate- 
rial is found to be mnch better applied in small quan- 
tities, occasionally repeated, than in large quantities 
at one time. 

9. Salt, chloride of sodium. There is much dif- 
ference of opinion in regard to this fertilizer, but 
there are doubtless soils on which it is useful. It has 
a tendency to check the growth of weeds, and its 
effect on grain is to increase the solidity and weight. 

10. Lime and Salt Mixture, — This may be pre- 
pared by adding two parts of lime to one of common 
salt, or by slacking the lime with a saturated solution 
of salt. The preparation should be made several 
months before usin g. 

6 



122 INDIAN CORN. 

11. iSTiTEATE OF Potash, saltpetre. The effect of 
this fertihzer has been found in some instances quite 
remarkable ; but like most other manures, it varies 
with the soil. It makes an excellent solution for 
steeping. 

12. JSTiTRATE OF Soda. — For soils deficient in soda, 
this application can hardly fail to be useful. It is 
sometimes applied in connection with the sulphate of 
soda, with an increased effect. 

13. Sulphate of Ammonia. ) 

14. Phosphate " ) All growing plants 
require ammonia, and what they do not obtain from 
the atmosphere by the agency of descending rains, 
must be derived from the soil, or from the manures 
applied to it. Hence any fertilizers containing this 
principle may be applied to Indian corn with un- 
doubted advantage. 

15. Phosphate of Magnesia and Ammonia. — 
This compound is highly commended by Professor 
Johnston for its marked effect upon Indian corn. 
He cites a case in which three hundred pounds per 
acre increased the crop of grain six times and the 
stover three times. " It is prepared by pouring 
mixed solutions of sulphate of magnesia and sulphate 
of ammonia into a solution of the common phosphate 
of soda." 

All of the above fertilizers contain a greater or 
less amount of the constituents of maize, and are 
therefore adapted to that crop, though in different 
degrees. Wliich of them may be used to the best ad- 
vantage in a given case, or how many of them, or in 



MAJTOKES. 123 

what proportions, are questions to be determined 
chiefly by the character of the soil. 

If the farmer has ascertained the requirements of 
his soil ; if he has determined, either by experimental 
processes, or otherwise, in what constituents of maize 
it is deficient, he is then prepared to apply his fer- 
tilizers with intelhgence and effect, and so far as it 
depends upon the mere presence of enriching material 
in the earth, he will easily be able to bring his land 
up to any capacity of yield he may choose, being only 
limited by the expense. 

He will, however, discover that the mere presence 
of manures is not all that is required, even though 
they contain the precise ingredients that are lacking 
in the soil. The condition in which they are applied 
has no small influence on the effect they are capable 
of producing. If they are in a hard, concrete, undi- 
vided mass, they should be pulverized. If they are 
not, indeed, already in a state of minute subdivision, 
they should be brought to that condition before ap- 
plying them. Some of the saline fertilizers are pro- 
cured in a state of powder, others in hard lumps that 
need to be finely crushed or dissolved. 

But the manure requiring most attention in this 
respect is that of the farm-yard. It is not a little 
remarkable that in the very case where the process 
of reduction and disintegration is most of all needed, 
it seems to be most neglected. The contents of the 
stalls and of the compost heap, which, from the variety 
of materials they comprise, need to be elaborately 
worked over and subdivided, in order to be thoroughly 



124: ESTDIAN COEN. 

intermingled^ are yet frequently carted upon the land 
in rude lumps and unbroken masses that strangely 
contrast with the fine roots and fibres through whose 
minute mouths they have yet to enter before they can 
nourish the growing corn. 

" Few farmers," says the editor of the Agricul- 
turist, " comprehend the importance of attending to 
this item in the preparation of their stock of fertilizers. 
They are often carried to the field in the spring, in 
the coarsest form possible, the hay and straw not fer- 
mented at all, and the coarse clods carried in to the 
yard last summer, not broken. They are spread in 
this state, and the large lumps are ploughed under so 
that they are not immediately available for the suste- 
nance of plants. Plants feed mainly at the extremi- 
ties of the rootlets, through mouths too small to be 
seen by the naked eye. The finer the manure is made, 
the more easily it is dissolved in water, and the sooner 
it j^asses into the circulation." 

The cultivator who intends to secure a maximum 
crop, or even a tolerably liberal and paying yield, will 
find it necessary to attend to his fertilizers, whatever 
may be the kinds employed, and to reduce them to a 
suitable degree of fineness before applying them to 
his soil. 

But, in order to secure to the growing plant the 
full and legitimate efiect of the manure applied, there 
is still another condition remaining to be complied 
with. The fertilizer and the soil require to be intimately 
hlended. It is not enough that they are, each of them, 
completely and thoroughly pulverized ; they must 



MANTJEES. 125 

also be, and witli equal thoroughness, intermingled. 
The particles of manure must be effectually and uni- 
formly distributed among the particles of the soil. 

Prof. Way, in a lecture before the Eoyal Agricul- 
tural Society of England, finely illustrated the rela- 
tions of the soil to the plant that grows in it, by com- 
paring the former to the stomach of an animal, ob- 
serving that Nature had given to the soil the function 
or office which in animals is performed by the gas- 
tric juice and the chyle — that of preparing and di- 
gesting the food of plants. Nothing can show plainer 
than this analogy the importance of incorporating fer- 
tilizers with the soil. 



PLANTING. 

Having selected his seed-corn with discriminating 
care, having prepared it hj steeping for an early and 
vigorous start, having given it a moderate coating of 
tar to shield it from its earliest enemies, and finally, 
having imparted to his soil the requisite degree of 
mellowness and fertility, the farmer is now prepared 
to commit his seed to the earth. 

But here again he is confronted by problems pecu- 
liar to the soil, and for the solution of which he must 
rely mainly upon his own investigations. Before de- 
positing his seed in the earth, it is needful to determine 
the proper depth for planting, and the proper intervals 
of space. These are points that depend materially upon 
the variety of corn, the character of the soil, and the 
manner of treating it. There is, therefore, no fixed or 
uniform rule on the subject. The depth for planting 
varies from one inch to two or three. In a very heavy 
soil, the former would perhaps be sufiicient ; in a very 
light soil, the latter would scarcely be too deep. But 
the proper distance between the grains is subject to 
still wider latitude, and is even more dependent upon 
varying circumstances. 



PLANTING. 127 

The best advice, then, that can be given to the 
cultivator in tliis case, as in a previous one, is to carrj 
his inquiries directly to the soil, and obtain his an- 
swers there. All the information necessary for his 
purpose, in regard to these points, he can obtain in a 
single season, by a series of well-managed experi- 
ments. 

There are two modes of distributing the grain in 
planting, in regard to which agriculturists are divided 
in opinion and practice, some maintaining that plant- 
ing in hills is most successful, while others are equally 
strenuous in favor of drills. The preponderance of 
opinion, however, is in favor of the latter method. 
Our own experience is entirely in favor of drills, which 
seems to be the mode of planting that will secure the 
largest product. Still this point, like most others in 
husbandry, is one that every farmer can determine 
for himself. But let him adopt which he may of these 
methods, the same question of spaces remains to be 
solved. 

This investigation is somewhat complicated, and 
resolves itself into two inquiries : 

1st. "What is the average distance between the 
grains, or, in other words, what is the area of soil to 
each grain, that will give the largest yield per acre ? 
Now, when this is determined, it will be found that 
there are various modes of distribution that will give 
the same area to each grain, and yet no two of these 
would probably give the same result per acre. For 
instance, suppose it were ascertained that three square 
feet of ground to each grain would give a larger yield 



128 INDIAN CORN. 

than any other area. Kow a distribution of hills, 
three feet apart, with three grains in the hill, would 
satisfy this condition. So also an arrangement of 
drills three feet asunder, with stalks twelve inches 
apart in the drill, would equally fulfil the condition. 
But the product per acre of these two methods would 
not be the same. Here, then, arises the other in- 
quiry : 

2d. With a given area to each grain, what is the 
arrangement or distribution of the grains that will 
give the largest product per acre ? 

This problem deserves the attention of every agri- 
culturist, for it determines, as elsewhere stated, the 
limit of possible yield. The solution of it can un- 
doubtedly be unfolded by the method of experiments, 
if they are well planned and carefully executed. 

The intelligent and thoughtful farmer understands 
that, as there are many modes of distributing the 
grain in planting, he cannot expect to adopt the best, 
without knowing which it is, and this he cannot know 
without making a trial. He therefore determines to 
vary his modes of planting, remembering that the 
greater the number of plans he tries the more certain 
he will be of finding out the best. Accordingly, he 
plants a part of his field in hills, and part in drills. 
The former he places at different distances asunder, 
varying at the same time the number of grains in 
each. The drills are in like manner placed at differ- 
ent distances, and the intervals between the grains are 
also varied. In all this there is no great intricacy and 
no real diflaculty. He thus examines, with but little 



PLANTING. 129 

extra trouble, some fifteen or twenty different ar- 
rangements for planting; and as all these trials are 
introduced into his regular crop, they involve no 
interruption of his general plan. If, now, he should 
find that some one or more of these methods give 
him a yield of eighty or ninety bushels per acre, 
while the plan he is accustomed to has seldom given 
over sixty bushels, he would be very likely to open 
his eyes to the value of such experiments. 

But there is one essential thing to be observed and 
remembered. The more closely the grains are planted 
the more the soil is to be enriched, and the more 
thoroughly and deeply must it be tilled. It is also to 
be observed that the small varieties admit of closer 
planting than the large. 

To guide the cultivator in pursuing the investiga- 
tion of this subject, the table given on pages 130 and 
131 may be of some service. It exhibits twenty-one 
different arrangements for planting, with three several 
results for each per acre. These results are given in 
bushels,'" omitting fractions. 

The average weight of shelled com per ear is 
about five ounces. In the table, therefore, three 
ounces are taken as the estimate for a small ear, five 
ounces for one of medium size, and seven ounces for a 
large ear. The fifth column indicates the yield, sup- 
posing the stalks to contain, on an average, but three 
ounces of corn each ; the sixth column gives the yield 
for five ounces, and the last column for seven ounces. 

* The bushel is taken at 56 lbs., that being the legal weight in most 

of the States. 

6* 



130 



nroiAN CORN. 



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132 INDIAN CORN. 

The mode of spacing given in the second and 
eightli lines of the above table, allowing but one 
square foot of soil for each stalk, is introduced here 
for the purpose of comparison only, and not with a 
view of being attempted in practice. 

In the first and ninth lines, also, the arrangement 
is too much crowded for general field culture, but may 
be well enough introduced in a series of trials ; though 
the ninth method is, in fact, the same as that practised 
by Major Williams, of Kentucky, who succeeded in 
getting one hundred and sixty bushels per acre, which 
is only ten bushels short of the maximum result given 
in the table for that method. 

The mode of distribution given in the seventh and 
twenty-first lines will probably yield the largest ears, 
but not as large an aggregate product as some of the 
others. 

A few of the results in the above table are such as 
no practical agriculturist would expect, in the present 
state of our knowledge, to be able to arrive at. "What 
may be hereafter accomplished, when the genius of 
our farmers shall have introduced and perfected new, 
and at present unknown, varieties of corn, and when 
science and skill shall have more fully developed the 
higher possibilities of the experimental system, it 
would be difiicult now to say. But, in a soil favored 
by nature, and rightly improved, there is, we think, 
no impossibility in obtaining any of the results of the 
foregoing table, with the exception of those given in 
the first, second, and eighth lines, and, in the last col- 
umn, of the tenth and seventeenth lines. 



f 



PLANTING. 133 

Ko man can tell what his own particular soil is 
capable of, or can be made capable of, until he has 
proved it. The cultivator who has always pursued 
one invariable method, without trying or examining 
any other, can never be sure that his own method is 
the best, or that it is anywhere near the best, or that 
it is even comparatively a good one. He may have 
been unconsciously planting his corn for years upon 
a wrong principle, which a few simple experiments 
Avould have long since corrected. It is quite possi- 
ble that he has been losing some ten or fifteen bushels 
of corn per acre annually, for years, only for the want 
of a little more knowledge, which might have been 
acquired with a little more trouble. 

In order to determine this point, let him submit 
his method to a rigorous investigation. Let him com- 
pare it with other methods, in various and repeated 
trials. Let him put himself in communication with 
Nature, and in a series of careful and patient manip- 
ulations, he will be able to draw out from the bosom 
of the earth a generous revelation of the laws that 
regulate her hidden treasures. By a system of ex- 
periments well framed and faithfully carried through, 
he will be able to pour a flood of light into his 
soil that will disclose unsuspected mines of cereal 
wealth. 

In regard to the other details of planting, they are 
few and simple. Great precision is necessary in mark- 
ing out the rows, to have them as regular and straight 
as possible, in order to facilitate the after-culture. It 



134 INDIAN CORN. 

is the practice of some farmers, and well worthy of 
general adoption, to use tlie subsoil plough in striking 
out the furrows. " From the peculiarity of this plough," 
says Prof. Mapes, " the soil will be left in a much 
more divided condition than by the simple ploughings 
alone, besides the fact that this fresh disintegration 
gives strange germinating power to the soil in which 
the seed is now to be introduced. This lifting sub- 
soil plough will affect the soil at the surface for one foot 
each side of its line of travel, so that the after-culture 
between the rows need not approach so nearly to the 
corn." 

It is a good rule in planting maize to put more 
grain into the ground than is intended to remain. It 
provides against casualties, and can be thinned out 
at the second hoeing. It has also this advantage, that 
it enables the cultivator, at the time of thinning, to 
make a selection. There is often at that stage of 
growth a marked difference in the plants ; and it is 
an important point gained when the stalks are so 
abundant that all the small and inferior ones can be 
rejected, and still leave an ample supply of large, 
healthy, and vigorous plants. This certainly increases 
the chance for a good crop, and seems entitled to more 
attention than it has usually received. 

Another point connected with planting, and too 
important to be overlooked, is the uniform covering 
of the seed. K this is not properly attended to, there 
can be no uniformity of depth, nor equality of growth. 
In planting by hand, it is scarcely possible to accom- 
plish this object. A variety of planting implements, 



I 



PLANTTNTG. 136 

of more or less merit, have been introduced within a 
few years, and no good farmer should be without 
one. In drill-planting, this implement is still more 
indispensable than for planting in hills, and very 
speedily reimburses the outlay in the saving of time 
and the superior accuracy of the work. 



AFTEK-CULTUEE. 

If the ground intended for corn has been prepared 
before planting, in the thorough manner indicated in 
a previous chapter, the labor of after-culture is thereby 
diminished. The more mellow and porous the con- 
dition of the soil at the time the grain is put into it, 
and especially if it has been deeply disintegrated by 
the subsoil plough, the less deeply and frequently will 
it require to be disturbed during the growth of the 
plant. A certain amount of tillage is, of course, in- 
dispensable to keep down the weeds, and to facilitate 
the access of air and water to the roots. But the true 
theory of after-culture is doubtless to keep the earth 
that surrounds and covers the roots of the plant as 
open, and loose, and porous as j)ossible, without, at 
the same time, doing violence to the roots. 

Hence it is obvious, that if the soil is brought 
completely into this condition at or before the com- 
mencement of germination, it will not require the 
same amount of disturbance afterwards, with the plough 
and other implements, that it must necessarily demand 
in those cases where the roots, and stems, and minute 



I 



AFTEE-CULTUEE. 137 



fibres are compelled from the sta,rt to struggle througli 
a hard, compact, and neglected soil. All the tillage, 
however, that can be given with safety, and all that 
the earth really needs, in order to keep it aerated, and 
to prevent the growth of weeds, it must have. 

Tliere is no greater enemy to the maize-crop than 
weeds ; and it is even doubted by some whether all the 
other enemies of this cereal combined accomplish so 
great an amount of mischief as these spontaneous and 
all-pervading pests of husbandry. They are sometimes 
kept out of the cornfield by precautionary measures, 
if these are early adopted ; but this cannot always be 
efiected with certainty. There are certain fertilizers 
that have a favorable tendency in this direction, and 
especially common salt, which, on some lands, produces 
the twofold effect of increasing the crop and check- 
ing the growth of weeds. But when, in spite of all 
the precautions that can be employed, these plagues 
and persecutors of the soil obtrude themselves into 
the cornfield, they must be dealt with promptly, at 
whatever sacrifice. They must be extirpated at once, 
even if it is done at the risk of some damage to the 
roots of the grain. The growing corn can better afford " 
to encounter the possible loss of some portion of its 
roots, than to endure the presence of these greedy 
interlopers, that swarm into the field, only to rob the 
soil of its nutriment, and to exclude from it the genial 
sunlight. 

The germs from which this infinite variety of 
weeds annually and spontaneously springs, are not the 
product of a single season, but doubtless the gradual 



138 INDIAN CORN. 

accumulation of many years. Hence the farmer's only 
certain and final delivery from tliem is in tlie constant 
and complete extinction of them every season, before 
they go to seed, for a series of years, until the last 
lingering germ is developed and destroyed. 

It is thought by some that a certain amount of 
root-pruning is no disadvantage to corn, but rather a 
benefit ; and that, consequently, the plough cannot be 
too much or too often used in after-culture. !Now it 
is not, perhaps, impossible that root-pruning may be, 
to some extent, an advantage, though the weight of 
opinion is clearly against it ; but, supposing it to be 
in some degree necessary, this scarcely justifies the 
excessive use of the plough after germination has com- 
menced. If root-pruning be at all, or under any cir- 
cumstances, salutary, it can only be so within certain 
limits, and when performed with judgment and care. 
But the action of the plough is necessarily violent and 
indiscriminate, rending with fatal energy whatever 
resists its progress. The very qualities that give to 
it its greatest value, would in this case impart the 
greatest mischief. When rightly used, it is an instru- 
ment powerful for good. But when driven among 
the rows of young and tender corn, in the capacity of 
root-pruner, it becomes an agent of destruction. 

The horse-hoe and the cultivator are less objec- 
tionable than the plough ; but after the corn is well up 
and under good headway, with its roots ramifying the 
soil in every direction, even these implements are 
more or less perilous, and should be employed with 
the utmost caution. Even while the sprouting grain 



I 



APTER-CULTUEE. 139 

is scarcely yet four inches above the earth, its indus- 
trious roots have already radiated to an amazing 
length, and some of them have doubtless crossed the 
track of the plough. 

It is the opinion of some agriculturists, that a 
hand-cultivator might be so contrived as to accom- 
plish all that is needed in the after-culture of corn. 
The common garden cultivator is said to have been 
used in some cases with entire success, where the soil 
had been rendered extremely mellow before planting. 
If some ingenious modification of the hand-cultivator 
should be found adequate to all the requirements of 
after-culture, it would indeed be a great gain to the 
cornfield, provided the labor of propelling it were 
not so great as to form a serious objection. 

It is certainly not unreasonable to suppose that an 
implement, combining the merits of the horse-hoe and 
garden cultivator, might be constructed on a scale of 
size fitting it for hand use, that would answer every 
needful purpose for after-culture, in all cases where the 
soil is deeply and sufficiently pulverized before planting. 
Nor is there any good reason why it might not be so 
contrived as to do the work of the hand-hoe also. 
Such an instrument, if successful, would be found 
equally applicable to root-crops, and to all other 
plants requiring after-culture. One great advantage 
of this invention in corn-husbandry would be, to per- 
mit the small and prolific varieties of corn, such as 
the Browne, to be planted in closer drills than the 
horse-hoe allows, thus enabling them to reach a 
higher yield per acre than they can in any other way. 



140 mDIAN COKN. 

One man, by this invention, would do the work of a 
man and horse, and do it more accurately, and with 
less destruction ; nor need it be any more laborious, 
with a well-made instrument, and in well-prepared 
ground, than tlie twofold operation of driving the 
horse and properly managing the implement he draws. 

The useless habit of piling up the earth in cone- 
shaped hills around the stalks of corn, which was 
at one time almost universal, is now generally dis- 
approved and wisely abandoned. It was formerly 
supposed to aid the stalk in resisting the effect of 
severe gales, but experience has proved this to be a 
mistaken notion. There was also an imagined ad- 
vantage in drawing up the earth around the roots ; 
but here again experience has developed the sounder 
philosophy of allowing the roots to find the earth, as 
they require it, by their own spontaneous movement. 
This they will be sure to do ; and they will find the 
manure also, provided both manure and soil have 
been sufficiently pulverized and blended. 

The editor of the Cultivator, as quoted by Emer- 
son, in his Encyclop£edia, has given the following opin- 
ion, as to the practice of hilling corn, and also as to 
the use of the plough in after-culture : 

" All or nearly all the accounts we have published 
of great products of Indian corn, agree in two partic- 
ulars, viz. : in not using the plougli in the after-culture, 
and in not earthing, or but slightly, the hills. These 
results go to demonstrate that the entire roots are 
essential to the vigor of the crop, and that roots, to 
enable them to perform their function as Nature de- 



, AFTER-CULTDKE. 141 

Signed, must be near the surface. If the roots are 
severed with the plough, in dressing the crop, the 
plants are deprived of a portion of their nourishment ; 
and if thej are buried deep by hilling, the plant is 
partially exhausted in throwing out a new set near 
the surface, where alone they can perform all their 
offices," 



HARYESTmG AND STOEING. 

The mode of harvesting the corn crop differs in 
different sections of the country. In most of the 
Northern States the general practice is to cut it near 
the ground, when the grain is sufficiently glazed, and 
before the stalks begin to wither. It is highly im- 
portant to determine the right stage of maturity for 
cutting, and requires nice discrimination as well as 
experience. The weight and quality of both grain 
and stover depend materially on seasonable harvest- 
ing. After the corn is cut and stooked, it is usually 
allowed to remain in the field until sufficiently diy for 
husking, after which the grain is conveyed to the crib, 
and the stalks are either stored in the barn or stacked 
near the cattle yard for provender. In all cases where 
the stover is not stored under cover, it should be 
stacked with great care, to secure it from being in- 
jured by the weather. 

In many of the Southern and Western States, a 
different and more prodigal mode of harvesting is 
practised. The corn is there first topped, by cutting 
the stalks above the ears, while the latter are left until 



HARVESTING AND STORING. 143 

fully ripened, after which they are husked on the 
ground, and carried to the crib. Cattle are then 
turned into the field to consume what remains of the 
stover. This practice is inexcusably wasteful, and 
those who adopt it can hardly expect to find their 
corn crop a source of much profit. 

" The stalks of corn," says Mr. Allen, in the 
American Farm Book^ " ought never to be cut above 
the ear, but always near the ground, and for this ob- 
vious reason: the sap which nourishes the grain is 
drawn from the earth, and passing through the stem, 
enters the leaf, where a change is effected, analogous 
to what takes place in the blood, when brought to the 
surface of the lungs in the animal system ; but with 
this peculiar difi'erence, however, that while the blood 
gives out carbon and absorbs oxygen, plants, under 
the influence of light and heat, give out oxygen and 
absorb carbon. This change prepares the sap for 
condensation and conversion into the grain. But the 
leaves which thus digest the food for the grain are 
above it, and it is while passing downward that the 
change of the sap into grain principally takes place. 
If the stalks be cut above the ear, nourishment is at 
an end. It may then become firm and dry, but it 
will not increase in quantity, while if cut near the 
root, it not only appropriates the sap already in the 
plant, but it also absorbs additional matter from the 
atmosphere, which contributes to its weight and per- 
fection." 

Many experiments have been made on this subject, 
aU tending to the same result, and showing that there 



144 INDIAN CORN. 

is a gain of from five to ten bushels per acre in the 
amount of grain, by cutting the corn near the ground. 
In a trial made by Mr. Clarke, of Northampton, Mas- 
sachusetts, an acre of topped corn was found to have 
lost between six and eight bushels of grain by the 
process. 

But in addition to the loss of grain from this prac- 
tice, there is a further loss in the stalk, which, if cut 
at the right season, and cured with care, forms an ex- 
cellent article of fodder. The most enlightened cul- 
tivators, whose experience in the best mode of using 
this provender has taught them how to appreciate it, 
are invariably careful in securing the whole of their 
stalk crop, and would no sooner leave a portion of it 
standing in the field than they would abandon a sim- 
ilar amount of any other crop they raise. They would 
regard every ton of stover thus relinquished as a need- 
less sacrifice, equivalent in amount of loss to the 
abandonment of so much hay. Ko sane man would 
think, for a moment, of gathering his timothy or clover 
by this " topping " process ; nor is there any sufiicient 
reason why he should leave the half of his stalk crop 
to perish in the field. 

The usual argument in defence of this practice, 
that the stalks thus relinquished are not lost but con- 
sumed by cattle turned subsequently into the field for 
the purpose, can have but little force with any man 
who has seen the experiment tried. The class of farm- 
ers who adopt this improvident course and justify it by 
this kind of reasoning, when advised to cut their corn- 
fodder before feeding, invariably reply that there is no 



HAEVESTING AND STORING. 145 

use in it; and that cattle will never half consume 
them, even when they are cut ; thus, unconsciously, 
condemning their own practice. They gather the 
small ends and tender portions of tlie stover, and 
tell us that even these, when cut, are but partially 
and reluctantly eaten, and yet imagine the same 
cattle that turn from these with indifference, will 
go into a field of unharvested butt-ends and devour 
them. 

JS^either of the positions here taken is tenable. 
They not only contradict each other, but they equally 
conflict with the facts of general experience, and with 
the dictates of common sense. No domestic animal 
will eat the large ends of corn-stover, as they stand 
in the field, blanched and withered by the elements, 
while all kinds of cattle will not only readily eat them, 
but thrive and fatten on them, when they have been 
seasonably harvested, well cured, and properly pre- 
pared for feeding by such process as every good farmer 
understands. 

Storing. — The ordinary method of preserving corn 
is to deposit it before shelling in long and narrow 
granaries, or cribs, the sides of which, and sometimes 
the ends, are constructed with laths or other narrow 
strips, so arranged as to leave spaces of an inch or 
more between, for the purpose of ventilation. The 
corn-crib should never be made more than nine or ten 
feet wide. If this width is exceeded, the grain at the 
centre is exposed to the risk of damage by heating. 
In all cases where greater width is necessary or de- 
sirable, it is a wise precaution, and perhaps a suffi- 
1 



14:6 mDIAN COEN. 

cient protection to the grain, to ventilate the crib 
through the centre of the flooring. 

For Measueestg Coen, either shelled or in the ear, 
the following rule is given in the American Farmers' 
Encylopmdia : " Having previously levelled the corn 
in the house, so that it will be of equal depth through- 
out, ascertain the length, breadth, and depth of the 
bulk ; multiply these dimensions together, and their 
product by four ; then cut off one figure from the 
right of this last product. This will give so many 
bushels and a decimal of a bushel of shelled com. If 
it be required to find the quantity of ear corn, sub- 
stitute eight for four, and cut off one figure as 
before." 



Eiq'EMIES OF COEN. 

The maize crop, in its liability to the depredations 
of enemies, sliares the common fate of the vegetable 
world. It is, however, in this respect, more fortunate 
than most kinds of grain and fruit. Its foes, though 
possibly as numerous, are far less fatal than those in- 
festing the wheat crop, and some other vegetable prod- 
ucts. 

In a general survey of the combined results of dis- 
ease and hostile ravages, it must be admitted that this 
cereal has escaped serious calamity in a remarkable 
degree. From disease it is so nearly exempt as to be 
considered virtually untouched. It has, indeed, for- 
midable enemies, but most of their attacks can, by 
seasonable measures, be either mitigated or prevented. 
The corn crop has, also, this further advantage — that 
the most serious inroads upon it occur at that stage 
of the growth while it is not yet too late to replant. 

The most common and familiar enemies of the 
corn crop are crows, blackbirds, squirrels, mice, and 
insects ; the last named being entirely the most nu- 
merous, dangerous, and diiEcult to guard against. 

The attacks of birds, mice, and squirrels can be, in 



148 INDIAN CORN. 

a great measure, prevented, or rendered harmless, by 
steeping the grain before planting (as elsewhere de- 
scribed) in a pungent or distasteful solution, and still 
more effectually by coating it thinly over with tar. 

But the insect tribes are more formidable, and not 
so easily repelled. In order to -deal with them success- 
fully, it is necessary to understand their habits, and to 
anticipate their approach with well-timed vigilance. 

The following are some of the insects most fre- 
quently encountered by corn either in the Held or the 
crib : the cut-worm, the white grub, the wire-worm, 
the spindle-worm, the aphis mayis, the Angoumois 
moth, the chinch-bug, and the weevil. 

The CuT-WoEM is the most dangerous enemy of 
the corn crop, to which, however, its ravages are not 
by any means confined. It is an equally well-known 
and destructive pest of the vegetable garden. In the 
daytime it remains concealed in the earth, and during 
the night commits its ravages, completely severing the 
stem of the young and tender plant, near the surface 
of the ground. This insect is of several species, which 
are the offspring of moths or millers belonging to the 
agrotidian group. One of the most familiar of these 
is the gothic dart-moth, which, in midsummer even- 
ings, makes itself unpleasantly sociable around the 
lighted lamp. The cut-worm, when its full size is at- 
tained, measures from one to two inches in length, 
the color being of various shades of gray, with the 
head of a brown or orange hue. 

The White Grub, though often confounded with 
the cut-worm, differs from it in its habits, as well a^ 



ENEMIES OF COEN. 149 

in appearance and origin. Its ravages are confined to 
the roots of plants, nor is it ever known, like the lat- 
ter, to attack the stalk above ground. Yarions other 
plants, equally with maize, are subject to its depreda- 
tions ; the grasses being sometimes damaged or de- 
stroyed over entire fields, in its devouring progress. 
The May-beetle, sometimes called the Dor-bug, is the 
parent of this worm. The color of the beetle is a 
chestnut-brown, with the breast inclining to yellow, 
and in length it sometimes reaches an inch, though 
usually a little less. The grub, as its name implies, is 
a white worm, with a head approaching to brown. 

The WiKE-WoKM. — The havoc committed by this 
insect is also below the surface of the ground, and ex- 
tends to the planted seed as well as to the roots that 
spring from it. This grub is the ofispring of the 
Elator, or Spring-beetle. It attacks, with but little 
discrimination, the roots of most herbaceous plants 
within its reach, to some of which it is often very de- 
structive. According to Mr. Townsend Glover, the 
entomologist of the Department of Agriculture, " the 
true wire-worm is the larva of a species of elator, or 
click-beetle, commonly known by the trivial name of 
snapping-bug, from its habit of being able to throw 
itself some distance in the air with a sudden click, 
when laid upon its back ; it is said to pass five years 
in the larva or feeding state, and resembles the com- 
mon meal-worm, the body being cylindrical, very 
tough, of a yellowish brown color, and furnished with 
a distinct head, and only six legs." 

The Spindle- Worm takes its name from its destroy- 



150 INDIAN COEN. 

ing the young and tender spindle of tlie maize. Its 
ravages usually commence at an early stage of the 
growth of the plant, while the spindle is yet but little 
developed. The presence of this miscreant is indicated 
by the withering of the leaves, which may be taken 
hold of and drawn out along with the spindle. A 
small hole may be detected in the side of the plant, 
near the surface of the ground, entering into the centre 
of the stalk, where the worm will be found — a small, 
yellowish insect, with the head nearly black. The 
moth produced from this insect, according to Dr. Har- 
ris, diifers from the other nonagriaus somewhat in 
form, itsforewings being shorter and more rounded at 
the tip, and the hind wings of a yellowish gray. The 
surest way to check the ravages of these insects is to 
destroy them in the caterpillar state. If permitted to 
turn to moths, they escape, with the certainty of prop- 
agating another brood. 

The Aphis Mayis, or corn-plant louse, belongs to 
an exceedingly numerous tribe. The aphis, of one 
kind or another, is found upon almost every plant in 
the vegeteble kingdom, and multiplies with a rapidity 
truly amazing. So prolific are they, according to 
Reaumur, that one individual, in five generations, 
may become the progenitor of nearly six thousand 
million descendants. The corn aphis, according to 
Dr. Harris, is found mostly below the surface of the 
ground, deriving its nourishment from the roots of the 
plant, and the crop, in light poor soils, is liable to 
sufler seriously from this cause. These insects, small 
as they are, might, by their numbers, become truly 



ENEMIES OF COKN. 151 

formidable, were it not that nature has placed a check 
upon their increase. Other insects, the enemies of 
these, destroy and devour them. 

The CHmcH Bug is chiefly and primarily known 
as the enemy of the wheat crop, which, in the West- 
ern and some of the Southern States, it invades in 
numbers equally formidable and fatal. The chief 
peril of the cornfield from this gregarious foe seems 
to occur when the former crop is too limited in amount 
to satisfy its rapacity, or has been placed by harvest- 
ing beyond its reach. It has been suggested to sow 
clover along with wheat and other small grains, which 
it is thought would have the effect of detaining the 
insect in the field, after the grain is harvested, long 
enough to save the neighboring crops from its ravages. 
Where no such precaution has been taken, and the 
wheat-field has been exhausted by these greedy and 
pestilent vermin, if there is no other cereal at hand 
but maize, and the latter is within reach, it is almost 
certain to be attacked and destroyed, unless promptly 
defended by vigorous measures. 

It is in the unripe stages of wheat, oats and com, 
that they are chiefly liable to the attacks of these 
bugs. Ml*. O. M. Colver, of Cedar County, Iowa, has 
given an interesting account of this insect in a letter 
to the American Institute Farmer's Club. " While 
feeding on the rich juices of the wheat," he remarks, 
" from the time it blossoms till it matures, they in- 
crease with amazing rapidity. Often whole fields 
of wheat, which only show a few small spots injured, 
are entirely killed within two weeks. Chinch bugs 



152 rcroiAN cokn. 

breed on tlie ground (and ■when it is dry many of 
them are in the dust) in colonies, sometimes cov- 
ering one or two square feet to the depth of half an 
inch or an inch with bugs in all stages of develop- 
ment, from the tiny red insect to the black bug and 
up to the perfect winged insect. They commence 
killing the wheat nearest their colony first, but they 
soon widen to feet, rods, and acres. The small white 
spots of dead wheat in the green field show their 
whereabouts. 

" They take their meals in clear hot days before it 
gets hot in the morning and late in the afternoon. 
They are mostly at home in the colony in the hottest 
part of the day, or gathered under sheaves of wheat 
from the heat. Do not cut wheat before it is ripe, on 
account of the bugs, for they only prevent it from 
maturing, and cutting it will do the same. They are 
most voracious in their growing state. I do not think 
they breed in oats or corn. So far as I have ob- 
served, they always attack oats after the wheat is ripe 
or killed by them, from the side next to the wheat. 
When they go from one field to another they do not 
commence in spots, but sweep all as they go. I have 
never seen them travel forty rods, irom one field to 
another, and do any damage." 

The chinch bug bears some resemblance in size, as 
well as odor, to another little voracious miscreant that 
sometimes invades the sleeping chamber. As the 
former insect is provided with wings, it is fortunate 
for the human family that it is not at the same time, 
like the latter, sanguiniverous. 



ENEMIES OF CORN. 168 

The Angoumois Moth. — This insect is a destructive 
enemy to other grains as well as to Indian corn, and 
sometimes commits fearful ravages on wheat, oats, and 
barley. It was introduced from France into this 
country many years ago, and is mostly confined to 
the Southern States, being unable to endure the cli- 
mate of the Korth. It is only upon the ripe grain, 
says Dr. Asa Fitch,* that this moth preys, attacking 
it in the field before harvest, and continuing to work 
upon it in the mow and the out-door stack, but being 
most destructive in the bins of granaries, flouring 
mills, and storehouses. The eggs are laid in clusters 
upon the kernels of the grain, and hatch in five to 
seven days. The worm bores into the kernel, where 
it remains feeding upon the flour, until only the hull 
is left, whereby it appears to the eye sound and unin- 
jured, but on being pressed is found to be soft, and 
by washing, the injured kernels are separated. 

The Weevil. — There are two species of this in- 
sect, to the attacks of which Indian corn is liable, 
viz. : the grain weevil and the rice weevil. Both of 
these, like the angoumois moth, extend their ravages 
to the other cereals, and attack only the ripened grain, 
the inside of which they consume, leaving the hull 
entire. "In the Northern States," says Dr. Fitch, 
" they are mostly confined to the storehouses in our 
cities. They are unknown in the interior of the 
country, except as they have been received in seeds 

* See his article on Insects, in the Annual Register of Rural Af- 
fairs for 1853. 

7* 



154 INDIAN CORN. 

distributed hj the Patent Office, which have very fre- 
quently abounded with these weevils, often to the 
alarm of the persons who have received them, who 
have been fearful a new insect enemy was being scat- 
tered over our land hereby." 



PEEYENTIYES AND KEMEDIES. 

Many and various have been the means resorted 
to for protecting the cornfield against the innumera- 
ble hosts of its insect foes. Some of these have 
proved quite successful, and others sufficiently so to 
encourage further effi^rts in the same direction. It is 
by no means impossible that continued investigations 
may yet teach us how to exclude from the maize crop 
the most dangerous of its enemies. 

Steeping the seed corn before planting, as recom- 
mended in the case of birds, though not an absolute 
protection against insects, has a salutary tendency in 
two ways. It is said to repel the wire-worm which 
usually attacks the germinating seed, and by quicken- 
ing the growth of the plant, places it sooner beyond 
danger from the attacks of other enemies. 

Ploughing up sward-land in the fall is attended 
with advantage, by throwing out many insects from 
their hidden recesses in the soil, and exposing them 
to be devoured by birds, or destroyed by the frosts of 
winter. 

A protection against the cut-worm, sometimes 



156 INDIAN COEN. 

found successful, is to sprinkle a small quantity of fine- 
cut tobacco on the surface of the ground, closely 
around the plants. 

The following expedient is recommended in the 
Farmers' EncyclojxBdia : " A pair of old wheels are 
to be fitted with projections like the cogs of a spur- 
wheel in a mill, which must be so formed as to make 
holes in the earth four inches deep during the turning 
of the wheel. The smooth track which the wheels 
make on the soft ground, induces the worm, in its noc- 
turnal wanderings, to follow on till it tumbles into 
the pit. It cannot climb out, and is destroyed by the 
hot sun." 

A good practice to prevent the propagation of this 
insect is to make bonfires in summer evenings when 
the moth begins to appear. Multitudes of these will 
swarm into the fire and be destroyed. 

For the wire- worm, the following preventive is 
recommended by the American Institute Farmer's 
Club : Take of plaster and wood ashes equal parts, 
saturate the same with night soil from the privy vault, 
haul to the field in barrels, and drop half a pint in 
the bottom of each hill. 

An expedient practised in England and recom- 
mended here, for destroying the wire-worm, consists 
in burying slices of potato sufficiently near the planted 
grain to attract the worm from it. These slices are 
to be examined daily, and the larvae thus collected to 
be destroyed. 

It is said that sowing a crop of white mustard 
seed will effectually extirpate the wire-worm from 



PEEVENTIVEB AND EEMEDIES. 157 

the soil. Mr. Tallant reports to the British Farmers' 
Magazine^ that he has freed his fields entirely from 
wire-worms by this means. 

The chinch bug is only to be headed off by active 
and vigorous measures. The following plan is re- 
ported to the Prairie Farmer^ by H. B. Norton, of 
Ogle County, 111. : " If any "Western rustics are ver- 
dant enough to suppose that chinch bugs cannot be 
outflanked, headed off, and conquered, they are en- 
tirely behind the times. The thing has been effect- 
ually done during the past season, by Mr. Davis, 
supervisor of the town of Scott, Ogle County, 111. 
This gentleman had a cornfield of a hundred acres, 
growing alongside of extensive fields of small grain. 
The bugs had finished np the latter and were pre- 
paring to attack the former, when the owner, being 
of an ingenious turn, hit upon a happy plan for cir- 
cumventing them. He surrounded the corn with a 
barrier of pine boards, set up edgewise and partly 
buried in the ground, to keep them in position. Out- 
side of this fence deep holes were dug about ten feet 
apart. The upper edge of the board was kept con- 
stantly moist with a coat of coal tar, which was re- 
newed every day. 

" The bugs, according to their regular tactics, ad- 
vanced to the assault in solid columns, swarming by 
millions and hiding the ground. They easily ascended 
the board, but were unable to cross the belt of coal 
tar. Sometimes they crowded upon one another, so 
as to bridge over the barrier, but such places were 
immediately covered with a new coating. The sue- 



158 INDIAN COKN. 

cess of the defence was complete. The invaders crept 
backward and forward until they tumbled into the 
deep holes aforesaid. These were soon filled, and the 
swarming myriads were shovelled out of them liter- 
ally by wagon loads — at the rate of thirty or forty 
hushels a day — and buried up in other holes dug for 
the purpose as required. This may seem incredible 
to persons unacquainted with this little pest, but no 
one who has seen the countless myriads which cover 
the earth as harvest approaches will feel inclined to 
dispute the statement. It is an unimpeachable fact. 
The process was repeated, till only three or four bush- 
els could be shovelled out of the holes, when it was 
abandoned. The corn was completely protected, and 
yielded bountifully." 

Broadcast applications to the land, as a means of 
protection against insects in general, have been fre- 
quently tried, and various substances have been em- 
ployed for the purpose, in some cases with very con- 
siderable success. But the results of all such trials 
are necessarily aflected by a variety of circumstances. 
Some of the articles most employed and commended 
are unleached ashes, lime, soot, nitrate of soda, com- 
mon salt, etc. Many farmers have found advantage, 
as mentioned by Mr. Colman, in his third report, by 
mixing salt with their stable-manure before applying 
the latter to the land. 

For the weevil and the Angoumois moth the best, 
and perhaps the only reliable remedy, is, as stated by 
Dr. Fitch, to subject the infested grain to the heat of 
an oven, or of a very hot room. The grain, he says. 



PREVENTIVES AND REMEDIES. 159 

may be heated to 190° of Fahrenheit's scale without 
losing its germinating power, and this is sufficient to 
kill all the insects contained in it. 

It is an interesting fact that in all this ceaseless 
crusade against the destructive insect tribes, Nature 
is ever cooperating with man. In the order of Provi- 
dence, some races of the animal creation are appointed 
to arrest the growth and progress of others ; thus lim- 
iting the results of excessive fecundity, which, if not 
restrained, would soon cause the earth to be overrun 
and monopolized by a few prolific tribes to the exclu- 
sion of all others. Natural history everywhere abounds 
with curious illustrations of this marvellous law, by 
which the equilibrium of the animal kingdom is stead- 
ily and mysteriously preserved. 

"Many of the almost unheeded insects," says Levi 
Bartlett, in a communication to the Country Oentle- 
man, " that flit about the farmer's feet, as he traverses 
his acres, are truly his friends and agents in destroy- 
ing other species that are so injurious to his crops. 
The first named should be protected, the latter should 
be destroyed, in all their three-fold stages, as far as 
possible. But without some knowledge of the science 
of entomology, no one can discriminate, to any great 
extent, between his insect friends and foes. Most of 
the tiger-beetles should be protected by the farmer 
while the May-beetle, and others of his like, should be 
crushed beneath the foot, even if it should 'feel a 
pang as great as when a giant dies.' " 

But of all the agents that cooperate with the 
farmer in his warfare upon injurious insects, there are 



160 INDIAN CORN. 

none that render a more important service than birds. 
The following striking illustration of this is given in 
Anderson's Recreations : — "A cautious observer, hav- 
ing found a nest of five young jays, remarked that 
each of these birds, while yet very young, consumed 
■fifteen full-sized grubs in one day, and of course would 
require many more of a smaller size. Say that, on an 
average of sizes, they consumed twenty a piece. These 
for the five make one hundred. Each of the parents 
consume, say, fifty, so that the pair and family devom* 
two hundred every day. This, in three months, 
amounts to twenty thousand in one season. But, as 
the grub continues in that state four seasons, this sin- 
gle pair, with their family alone, without reckoning 
their descendants after the first year, would destroy 
eighty thousand grabs. Let us suppose that the half, 
namely, forty thousand, are females, and it is known 
that they usually lay about two hundred eggs each ; it 
will appear that no less than eight millions have been 
destroyed, or prevented from being hatched, by the 
labors of a single family of jays. It is by reasoning 
in this way that we learn to know of what importance 
it is to attend to the economy of nature, and to be 
cautious how we derange it by our short-sighted and 
futile operations." 

How plainly, then, is it the interest of the farmer 
to attract to his fields, to encourage and protect the 
feathered tribes, of every name and kind, and to wage 
uncompromising war against all who persecute them ; 
for, incredible as it may seem, there are those who 
find a mysterious, if not malignant pleasure in slaying 



PKEVENTIVES AND KEMEDIE8. 161 

these meriy and innocent types of beauty. If there 
is, on earth, one miscreant that deserves scourging 
more than another, it is the shameless scamp who is 
60 often seen prowling through fields and woods, with 
loaded gun, intent on the destruction of these harmless 
and useful friends of man, that aid in protecting his 
cereal treasures, while they embellish with their pres- 
ence his groves and orchards, and fill the air with the 
music of their artless notes. 



DISEASES OF CORN". 

In the history of this plant disease is scarcely 
known. Occasionally some morbid indication, as a 
rust on the leaves or stalk, or an unnatural secretion, 
is witnessed ; arising probably from wounds in culti- 
vation, or from long-continued extremes of weather; 
but otherwise its history is marked with health and 
vigor, and it still remains untouched with any serious 
malady. The contrast in this respect with wheat 
and most other grains is so strikingly in favor of corn, 
as to justify the conclusion that the exemption of the 
latter is purposely ordered by a beneficent Providence. 

The principal disease of this cereal appears in the 
form of a dark spongy growth, sometimes of a blue 
black or purple tinge, that occasionally shows itself 
on the stalk or leaves, but is more apt to take the 
place of the blighted ear. This substance increases 
gradually in size, sometimes reaching six or seven 
inches in diameter, and is generally regarded as a rank 
and luxuriant species of fungus. The kind of para- 
sitic growth to which this fangus belongs, it has been 
found, may be in most cases effectually destroyed by 



DISEASES OF COKN. 163 

an application of common salt. It has, therefore, been 
inferred by some that soaking the seed-corn before 
planting in a solution of salt, or spreading salt freely 
upon the surface of the ground, will have the ejffect 
of preventing this disease. 

The usual theory in regard to this fungus attrib- 
utes it to the bruises and lacerations inflicted upon the 
young plant by a reckless mode of cultivation. The 
bleeding that occurs from these wounds results in the 
formation of the dark morbid substance above de- 
scribed. When this happens to be in contact with the 
ear, it is liable to prove destructive unless discovered 
in season and promptly removed. When it occurs on 
other portions of the plant it is more or less injurious, 
sometimes' interfering with the perfection of the grain. 
The only effectual remedy is speedy removal, and re- 
peating this process as often as the fungus may reap- 
pear, which it is apt to do, and sometimes to a trou- 
blesome extent. 

But this com'se, even when faithfully pursued, 
does not always insure a restoration of the plant. It 
is consequently a matter of importance to use precau- 
tion in avoiding the causes of this malady, and to 
guard carefully against the wounds and bruises liable 
to occur in after culture. Though some of the plants 
thus carelessly mangled may outlive the infliction and 
seem to thrive, even when the morbid growth is suf- 
fered to remain, yet a part of them must necessarily 
become too much enfeebled to be capable of perfect- 
ing the ear. 

In addition to the above-described fungus there is 



164 rSTDIAN COKN. 

also a reddish-brown species of rust that soraetimes 
shows itself on the leaves of maize. This, however, 
has seldom been known to extend so far as materially 
to affect the grain. In some instances, but more 
rarely, this rust has been known to iix itself on the 
stalk, and is then liable to produce more serious in- 
jury, and if it extends to the ear can hardly fail to 
diminish the product of grain. 

Tliis disease is attributed by Mr. Loraine, and some 
others, to the same cause that is supposed to produce 
the fungus, namely, the bruises inflicted by an incon- 
siderate cultivation. Others ascribe both this and the 
fungus to an atmospheric influence, or some peculiar- 
ity of the season. 

But from whatever cause these maladies may pro- 
ceed, the efltect seems to be, on the whole, compara- 
tively trifling, and the injury resulting has thus far 
proved too limited in amount to create any consid- 
erable apprehension. 

This comparative and almost total exception from 
disease is one cause of the greater certainty of the corn 
crop, and is so far an argument of some weight in 
favor of cultivating it more extensively and more 
thoroughly. For the greater the degree of certainty 
in any crop the farmer raises, the less risk he incurs in 
staking upon it a more elaborate and expensive mode 
of culture. 



THE STALK CROP. 

The stover of Indian corn, slighted as it too often 
is, has come to be a large and valuable item in Amer- 
ican husbandry. Its nutritive value for feeding pur- 
poses, and the amount yielded per acre, render it in- 
trinsically and practically an important crop. It is 
cultivated on three different plans, 

1. It is grown primarily and most extensively as 
an integral part of the regular corn crop, in which 
case the grain is the chief object in view, the stalks 
holding a subordinate place. 

2. It is also raised as an exclusive fodder crop, 
which is cured and harvested in the fall for winter 
use. In this case the grain, being no part of the ob 
ject, is excluded by close planting, which gives a more 
abundant yield of the stalk. Again : 

3. It is extensively grown as a green crop for cat- 
tle during summer and autumn. This process of soil- 
ing, as it is technically called, is found to be very 
profitable, and is getting to be largely practised. 

When to these various forms of the stalk crop is 
added the immense supply of sweet corn extensively 
cultivated by the farmer for table use, we have still 



166 INDIAN COEN. 

another addition to the aggregate yield of stalks, as 
well as a further contribution of grain to the general 
stock ; thus exemplifying the manifold utilities of this 
cereal, which, through so many and various channels, 
pours annually into the storehouse of the husband- 
man its munificent supplies of food for man and 
animals. 

Feeding Yalue. — The intrinsic worth of the corn- 
stalk to the farmer for feeding purposes, and its nutri- 
tious quality as compared with straw, hay, and other 
forage, may be determined by a comparative view of 
the constituents of each, and also more reliably by a 
series of trials or experiments in feeding. As far as 
these trials have yet been made by practical men, the 
results are nearly uniform, and clearly prove the su- 
periority of this provender. Tlie experience of en- 
lightened cultivators places the corn-stalk far above 
the straw of the other cereals in nutritive value, and 
justly ranks it, when properly cured and rightly 
treated in feeding, as quite equal to most kinds of 
hay. The testimony of competent judges on this sub- 
ject is sufficiently clear ; and the reason why any 
farmers are still doubtful in regard to it, the chief 
reason in fact why the cornstalk is not more generally 
prized at its true worth, is because its value is too 
often judged by the results of injudicious feeding, or 
by the unsound condition of it, arising from want of 
care in harvesting. 

" Indian corn-stalks," says Professor Norton, " when 
cut seasonably and well cured, make a most admira- 
ble fodder. They are then sweet and nutritious in 



THE STALK CROP. 167 

an eminent degree ; when cut fine, and mixed with 
Indian meal, are eaten by cattle with much avidity, 
and eaten clean, butts and all. Some farmers think 
that really good stalks are worth about as much as 
the best hay. When we consider the weight of them 
to be obtained from an acre of heavy corn, they are 
probably more than equal, taking into account the 
respective quantities per acre." 

But let us now examine the acreable product of 
this stover. "We may then be able by a comparative 
view of the quality and amount of it, to form a rational 
estimate of its total value, and also of the proportion 
it bears to the value of the grain. 

There are few agriculturists who know, with any 
degree of accuracy, how many bushels of grain, and 
fewer still, perhaps, who are definitely aware how 
many tons of stalks their maize crop yields per acre. 
Yet without this knowledge they can form no ade- 
quate judgment of what the crop is worth in the ag- 
gregate, and can have but a vague idea of what a 
bushel of the grain, or a ton of the stalks has cost them. 

Ratio of the Stalk to the Grain. — The acreable 
yield of the stover, and the ratio it bears to the grain, 
have been variously estimated by practical men. 
These estimates differ according to climate, variety 
of corn, etc. With the smaller and prolific varieties, 
when the yield is large, the ratio sometimes falls as 
low as sixty pounds of stalks to a bushel of grain. 
On the other hand, some of the large varieties have 
been known to produce, especially in warm latitudes, 
a growth of stalks equal to three or foiii' times the 



168 INDIAN CORN. 

weight of the grain. Somewhere between these ex- 
tremes the average ratio is to be found, and may be 
computed near enough for necessary purposes. 

In some estimates reported to the Patent Office 
from difi'erent sections of the country, the ratio was 
found, on an average, to be about eighty pounds of 
stalks to a bushel of corn. Some farmers, whose 
opinions are based upon careful investigation, have 
found the product of stalks to range from eighty to 
one hundred pounds to the bushel of corn. In some 
investigations made by the writer, the diversity was 
still greater, but giving a mean ratio of nearly ninety 
pounds of stover to a bushel of grain. But this pro- 
portion will scarcely hold good for the usual practice 
of cutting and curing. If, then, we assume the ratio 
of the grain to the stover to be twenty-five bushels to 
the ton, and for the more prolific varieties thirty bush- 
els, the estimate will be found very near the average 
experience of farmers. 

In comparing the relative acreable 'values of the 
grain and stalks, the case is reversed, and the grain is 
entirely ahead. The estimates of different farmers, 
in regard to the money value of the stalks, as com- 
pared with that of the grain, vary as widely as their 
modes of treatment. Some of them compute the 
stover at less than one-fifth the value of the grain, 
and others place it as high as one-third. When the 
stalks are in good condition, the latter estimate is 
probably much nearer the truth. 

It will always be found that the most successful 
cultivators place the highest value on their corn-stalks, 



THE STALK CEOP. 169 

and for this good reason, that their method of cutting, 
curing, and feeding is such as to impart to them a 
value that many farmers have little conception of. 

A few examples will be sufficient to show how the 
estimates of practical men vary on this subject. A 
farmer in Shelburn, Mass., who realized seventy dol- 
lars for his corn, computed his stalks at twelve dollars 
and fifty cents. A farmer of Northfield, Mass., whose 
acre of corn yielded fifty dollars, estimated the stalks 
at ten dollars. Another in Northfield, with a corn 
crop worth forty dollars, rated the stalks at ten dol- 
lars. Daniel Johnston, an experienced farmer of 
Johnsontown, IST. Y., considers his corn-stalks worth 
ten dollars a ton ; and in a crop valued at one hundred 
dollars, he estimated the stover at thirty dollars, and 
the grain at seventy dollars. Matthew "Waldron, a 
stock-farmer of Diamond Yalley, N. Y., regards his 
corn-stalks of more value than his best hay for cattle 
of all kinds, and especially for cows, and rates them 
at more than thirty per cent, of the value of the grain. 

It has been said, and appears by no means impos- 
sible, that the stalks of Indian corn, taken in the most 
perfect condition^ and converted into milk and but- 
ter, according to the best principles of feeding, may 
be made to realize a value quite equal to one-half 
that of the grain. 

The quantity of stalks produced on an acre may 
be calculated, lohen the amount of grain is Icnown^ 
according to the ratio above laid down, by taking 
twenty-five bushels of grain to represent a ton of the 
Btover. The quantity that an acre is cajyahle of pro- 
8 



iro 



nSTDLAJSr COKN. 



ducing may be theoreticallj determined in another 
way. 

It will be found that with the larger varieties of 
corn, the stalks of a crop well attended will weigh, 
on an average, eight ounces each. But, allowing for 
unseasonable cutting and for defective curing, if we 
estimate the weight at seven ounces, it will afford a 
fair criterion of what an acre ought to produce. In 
the following table the acreable product of stover is 
given, according to this basis, for several different 
distances in planting : 





Distance 
apart. 


Stalks per 
hill. 


Stalks per acre. 


Tons per acre, 
at 7 oz. per stalk. 


HiUs 


Sift. 


4 


14.223 


3.11 




3 ft. 


4 
Stalks apart. 


19.360 


4.23 


DriUs 


34 ft. 


6 


26.136 


5.71 




3 ft. 


8 


21.780 


4.76 




3 ft. 


6 


29.040 


6.35 



In the above table a part of the results are perhaps 
larger than some farmers are accustomed to realize-: 
but products equal to these have been obtained, anc 
may be again. 

If we now add to the above table the yield ol 
grain, assuming it to be five ounces per stalk, the 
number of bushels per acre corresponding in each 
case to the product of stalks would be as follows : 



THE STALK CROP. 



m 



stalks per acre. 


Grain per acre. 


8.11 


tons. 


79 bushels 


4.23 


(C 


108 " 


5.71 


u 


145 " 


4.76 


u 


121 " 


6.35 


u 


162 " 



Here it will be seen that the proportion of grain 
to stover is just about the same as the ratio given 
above, which was twenty-five bushels to a ton ; show- 
ing that one estimate corroborates the other. 

Let us now take a further comparative view of 
the stalks and grain of this cereal. Let us compare 
the total results per acre, including quantity and 
price. We will suppose the grain to bring seventy 
cents per bushel, and the stalks six dollars per ton. 
These fisrures are much below what the farmer should 
realize on a yearly average, but they will answer the 
purpose of illustration. We will take four different 
fields, viz., twenty-five bushels per acre, fifty bushels, 
seventy-five bushels, and one hundred bushels ; assum- 
ing the stalks to be, as before given, in the ratio of 
one ton to twenty-five bushels. We shall then have 
the following result : 



Yield pek Acre. 


Value of Each. 


Total 

Valtje, 


Grain, bushels. 


stalks, tons. 


Grain at 70c. 


Stalks at $6. 


■j 25 
1 50 

/ 75 
100 


1 

2 
3 
4 


$17 50 
35 00 
52 50 
70 00 


$6 00 
12 00 
18 00 
24 00 


$23 50 
47 00 
70 50 
94 00 



172 INDIAN CORN. 

Many fanners, by converting their stalks and grain 
into beef, butter, and pork, succeed in realizing, by 
good management, a dollar a bushel for their grain, 
and ten dollars per ton for the stover. On an acre 
yielding seventy-five bushels, that would give — 

75 bushels of grain, at $1 $75 

3 tons of stalks, at$10 30 

Total product $105 

By referring to the prices assumed in the table, it 
will be seen that the value of the stalks is a little over 
one-third of the value of the grain, and very nearly 
one-fourth of the total value of the crop. According to 
the other prices given above, the relative value of the 
stalks would be still greater; amounting to mucb 
more than one-third of the value of the grain, and 
more than one-fourth of the total value. In either 
case it is sufficiently evident how much the farmer 
loses who neglects his corn-stalks, and how much is 
gained by the prudent, intelligent man who turns 
tbem to the best account. 

Cured Fodder. — When Indian corn is planted ex- 
clusively for the stover, the sweet varieties are gen- 
erally preferred. It is planted much closer in the 
drills than the ordinary practice, and the amount of 
forage yielded per acre is, of course, much greater. 
The nutritive value is also said to be superior in this 
case, and the time and labor required in the cultiva- 
tion are less than when the crop is raised for its grain. 

In a soil naturally good and properly treated, from 
eight to twelve tons of cured fodder can be raised on 



THE BTALK CROP. 173 

an acre. The advantages of such a crop are therefore 
sufficiently apparent, as the yield is three or four 
times greater than that of hay, while the quality, if 
the stalks are well cured, is in no respect inferior. To 
the stock farmer this crop especially commends itself; 
for if his object is to winter his cattle with economy 
and advantage, there is no provender he can raise that 
is superior, for this purpose, to well-cured corn-forage. 

Green Foddek. — The practice of sowing corn, 
either broadcast or in drills, for the purpose of feed- 
ing it in the green state during summer and autumn, 
has been gaining ground for a number of years. The 
advantage of this is found to be so decided that farm- 
ers are beginning to adopt it very generally. There 
is, perhaps, no other way in which an equal amount 
of nutritious feed can be extracted from the same ex- 
tent of ground. All kinds of cattle and young stock 
thrive upon it, and for milch cows especially it is al- 
lowed by practical men to be better adaj)ted than any 
other product of the farm. 

This crop requires for its best results a high con- 
dition of soil, and well remunerates the application 
of manure and labor. Sorghum is sometimes planted 
as a soiling crop, but the sweet varieties of Indian 
corn are generally preferred. The best method of 
planting is in drills, which is found to give a larger 
yield than sowing broadcast. The product of the 
green fodder crop is usually from fifteen to twenty 
tons. Thirty tons have been raised, and higher yields 
are reported. Considering the amount of this prov- 
ender that can be grown upon an acre, and its unri- 



174 INDIAN CORN. 

vailed excellence as a succulent food, it is not surpris- 
ing that the attention of agricultmists is very gen- 
erally drawn to the subject. 

Mr. Josiah Quincj, Jr., of Mass., long and suc- 
cessfully engaged in this system of farming, estimates 
it is said that an acre will, by this method, and with 
this fodder, support, from three to four cows. Mr. 
D. S. Curtis, of Madison, "Wis., has communicated a 
valuable paper on this subject to the Patent Office 
Report for 1859, and finds also a like advantage and 
economy in this practice, even in a section of country 
where land is cheap and labor is dear. 

The American Institute Farmer's Club have re- 
corded their opinion that " nothing ever planted or 
sown for green or winter fodder, will give as much 
per acre as Indian corn; " and in the further discus- 
sion of this subject by the club, Mr. Carpenter added 
that one of his neighbors last year kept twenty-four 
head of cattle from the middle of July till frost upon 
two and a half acres of sowed corn, without exhaust- 
ing the whole product. He believes that fifteen cows 
could be well kept upon one acre of corn, by com- 
mencing to cut it up as soon as it was large enough, 
or whenever the pasture failed, so as to keep them in 
a full flow of milk all the autumn. 

The soiling system, when properly conducted, em- 
braces other grains, grasses, and root crops, as well as 
Indian corn ; but none of them contribute so largely 
to its success and profit as the latter ; and for the sim- 
ple reason that they are none of them capable of 



THE STALK CROP. 175 

yielding so large a return in proportion to the land 
and labor employed. 

Cost of Peoducing Cokn-Fokage. — The cost of 
raising this forage has been variously estimated, but 
is in nearly all cases remarkably low, in consequence 
of tlie large amount per acre compared with the labor 
required to produce it. 

Mr. S. W. Hall, of Elmira, IS". T., who obtained 
thirty tons from an acre, estimated the entire expense 
of the acre at thirty dollars, which brings the cost of a 
single ton down to one dollar. Mr. J. G. Webb, of 
Oneida County, found the expense per acre to be a 
little over eleven dollars for a yield of twenty-five 
tons, which makes the cost per ton less than half a 
dollar. The latter estimate, if entirely accurate, is 
doubtless an exceptional case. 

The average cost of this crop througliout the coun- 
try will probably range from one and a half to two 
dollars per ton ; and of the cured fodder from two to 
four dollars per ton. At these figures, any farmer, 
who understands how to turn his stalks to a good ac- 
count, must find them exceedingly profitable. 

Estimated Yaltje of the Stalk Ckop. — In view 
of the increasing extent and acknowledged import- 
ance of this crop, it would be interesting and instruc- 
tive to know the annual amount and value of it for the 
whole country. Altliough the census returns do not en- 
lighten us on this point, we can still form a proximate 
, estimate from other data that will perhaps be suffi- 
ciently accurate for a general view of the subject. 

The total product of Indian com in 1860 was 



176 nroiAN CORN. 

eight hundred and thirty-eight millions, seven hun« 
dred and ninety-two thousand, seven hundred and 
forty bushels. Allowing twenty- five bushels of grain 
to a ton of stover, this would give thirty-three mil- 
lions, five hundred and fifty-one thousand, seven hun- 
dred and nine tons as the stalk product of the main 
corn crop of the country. This, however, is but one 
branch, though by far the largest, of the entire stalk . 
crop. To arrive at the sum total, we must add to 
this the amount of stalks produced by several other 
crops, viz. : the crop of sweet com, of green fodder, 
and of cured fodder. 

Though we have not the same data to base a com- 
putation upon in the case of these crops as in the one 
above, we can still deduce from other grounds proxi- 
mate results which, if somewhat less certain, may yet 
be placed low enough to give them a high degree of 
probability. There are four million farmers in the 
United States, some of whom, doubtless, cultivate all 
thi'ee of these crops, while others raise one or two of 
them, and others again perhaps not any. Now it is 
reasonable to presume that on an average one or 
another of these crops is raised by every farmer ; but 
to bring the estimate nearer to a certainty, let us as- 
sume that by one-half the farmers in the country one 
or another of these crops is annually cultivated. Let 
us then further suppose the extent of each crop to be 
one acre, and the average yield of stalks four tons per 
acre. We then have eight million tons of stover to 
be added to the amount obtained above. 

If now, for the sake of still higher probability, we 



THE STALK CEOP. 177 

make a further abatement, reducing the eight million 
tons to six and a half million, we shall still have a 
grand total of forty million tons as the product of 
the stover of Indian corn for the whole country, at 
the period of the last census. This stover is worth, 
in some sections, from three to five dollars per ton ; 
in other localities ten dollars and upwards. If we 
estimate the whole crop at five dollars per ton, it will 
give for the aggregate value of the stalk crop of the 
United States, two hundred million dollars. 

The haj crop for 1860 was about nineteen million 
tons. The census tables record some products of 
but little over a million dollars in annual value. 
Yet here is a product worth more than two hundred 
millions, which the Government has never recognized, 
and which, it is believed, is nowhere represented in 
any authentic record, or any published account. 

The Advantage of Cutting- Corn-stalks. — There 
is perhaps no question in agriculture that has given 
rise to more discussion than this. The opinions of 
farmers on the subject are as various as their prac- 
tices. Some of them are accustomed 'to cut their 
stover half an inch long, others a full inch in length, 
while some contend that the greatest advantage is 
found in chafiing them very finely, not over one-fourth 
of an inch, and still another class maintain that there 
is little or no benefit in cutting them at all. This 
difi'erence of opinion has kept up, for years, a lively 
discussion in the agricultural journals, without appar- 
ently settling any one point to the satisfaction of the 
opposing parties. 
8* 



178 ESTDIAJSr COEN. 

In a theoretieal view it would appear that those 
who advocate the shortest cutting have taken the true 
rational ground. It seems to be the plain dictate of 
reason, and the obvious suggestion of common sense, 
that any mechanical process by which the food of do- 
mestic animals is effectually subdivided and pulverized 
before entering the stomach, must have a tendency to 
render digestion more easy, more certain, and more 
thorough, and that so far as this is accomplished the 
nutritive effect of the food is in the same degree in- 
creased. 

The very teeth that nature has planted in the 
mouth of every animal, stationed as they are, like so 
many sentinels, in the entrance-porch of the stomach 
to guard against the intrusion of unprepared food, by 
arresting and crushing all that passes in, clearly indi- 
cate that pulverization is an indispensable process, 
and a necessary prelude to digestion. 

Now, if it could be shown that the teeth alone, and 
unassisted, are always competent to this end, that they 
invariably and perfectly perform their office, never 
failing to reduce and grind thoroughly and rapidly 
every kind of food presented, there might then be 
some reason for doubting the necessity of cutting corn- 
fodder or any other provender before feeding. But it 
is a well-ascertained fact that the teeth are not perfect 
and infallible in their action — that the food of cattle, 
as well as the food of mankind, is very often imper- 
fectly and insufficiently masticated. And for this 
there are several reasons. 

It frequently happens that the impatient appetite 



THE STALK CROP. 1Y9 

refuses to wait upon the slow process of mastication. 
Tlie blind instinct of a voracious stomach pays but lit- 
tle respect to the mandibles, and the food is snatched 
from them before their work of grinding is fairly be- 
gun. We all know that a hungry man will often bolt 
his food nearly whole, and why should we expect the 
ox to be more of a philosopher than his master ? 

But it is not only in cases of extraordinary appe- 
tite that the teeth of domestic animals fail to perform 
their office perfectly. In all cases where the proven- 
der is by its nature hard and tough, or has a hard ex- 
terior, the process of mastication, though not entirely 
prevented, is seriously impeded ; and whatever ren- 
ders mastication slow, laborious, and difficult, must 
necessarily render it more or less imperfect in its re- 
sults. The consequence is that the animal either 
abandons with weary jaws its unfinished meal, or, if 
the whole is swallowed, loses some portion of the ben- 
efit by the imperfect digestion necessarily resulting 
from insufficient mastication. 

It is evident, then, that the teeth, in performing 
their intended function, have two serious obstacles to 
contend with — the hardness of the fodder and the hun- 
ger of the animal. Their efficiency is thus diminished, 
their work is imperfectly performed, and some portion 
of the food enters the stomach in a condition unfitted 
for its intended purpose. To meet this difficulty hu- 
man skill has supplied the cutting TnacJiine, which, 
when rightly used, cooperates with the teeth of the 
animal in bringing the provender to the precise con- 
dition required by the organs of the stomach ; ren- 



180 INDIAN COEN. 

dering the mastication complete, the digestion perfect, 
and the animal thrifty. 

These remarks and the principle involved are not 
limited in their application to the stover of corn, but 
extend equally to the cutting of hay and straw, to the 
slicing or pulping of roots, and to the gi'inding of all 
grains intended for domestic animals. In every case, 
whatever the kind of forage employed, the condition 
essential to the highest success in feeding is the me- 
chanical reduction of the food to such a degree of 
fineness as shall render masticatioH easy, rapid, thor- 
ough, and certain. 

This theory is not only founded in the nature of 
things, but is confirmed by the experience of a major- 
ity of practical farmers, as well as by the researches 
of science. It has been ascertained by chemists that 
the cellulose or fibre contained in most kinds of forage 
partakes of the nature of starch, being nearly identical 
with it, and that, when rendered soluble, it is quite as 
nutritious. It has also been found that the more finely 
this fibre is chafied, tlie more soluble it becomes ; and 
that this solubility is still fm-ther increased by the ap- 
plication of steam or scalding water. According to 
Dr. Cameron this woody fibre may be rendered to a 
great extent capable of assimilation, and when well 
assimilated or digested four-tenths of its weight may 
be converted into fat. 

It is the opinion of many practical men, both in 
this country and in England, that most kinds of prov- 
ender, when finely chafied, are increased in value 
from forty to fifty per cent., and some consider the 



THE STALK CEOP. 181 

gaiu equal to mucli more than tliis. " It has been 
proved," savs the Working Farmer, " that nineteen 
pounds of haj, cnt one inch long, will take the place 
of twenty-five pounds of uncut hay ; and it is equally 
true that if the hay be cut one quarter of an inch or 
less in length, the same relative proportion will an- 
swer the purpose. It is claimed by some that thirteen 
pounds of chaffifid hay is equal to nineteen pounds 
one inch long, or twenty-five pounds in the natural 
state. All these facts are equally applicable to corn- 
stalks." 

They are, indeed, even more applicable to stalks 
than either to hay or straw, as is evident from the 
nature of the case. Every consideration in favor of 
cutting hay becomes a much stronger argument when 
applied to corn-fodder. 

Without insisting on all the gain in value claimed 
by the journal above quoted, if we assume even the 
half of that increase, taking thirteen pounds of hay 
or stalks finely chaffed as equal to nineteen pounds 
uncut, this will still show a gain of forty-six per cent., 
which corresponds with the experience of many farm- 
ers, and is rendered entirely probable by the researches 
of chemistry. 

But in order to adopt an estimate that may be 
generally and certainly realized, let us put the ratio 
lower still. It is certainly a reasonable presumption, 
that on a general average the increase in the value 
of this stover, by chaffing it finely, will be found not 
less than forty per cent. ; and that when it is steamed 
or thoroughly soaked after cutting, the whole gain 



182 



INDIAN CORN. 



will be equivalent to sixty per cent, over the value of 
the uncut fodder. 

This principle may be more fully expressed by the 
following tabular form, indicating the increase in the 
feeding value of stalks for different degrees of treat- 
ment: 



Cut to. 


Gain per cent. 


Gain when steamed. 


1 incli. 

i " 


20 
30 

40 


40 per cent. 
50 " 
60 " 



The half-inch cutting is sometimes found objec- 
tionable on account of the hard coating of the stalk 
being liable to get between the teeth of the animal, 
producing discomfort and occasionally soreness of the 
mouth. This, it is said, may be to some extent pre- 
vented by steaming, which softeus the hard exterior 
of the stalk. But far the best and surest way to ob- 
viate the difficulty is to adopt the better practice of 
chaffing finely and steaming. It is here that the 
greatest advantage is found, and the greatest cer- 
tainty of profitable results. 

Yet notwithstanding the facts and arguments re- 
peatedly adduced in favor of cutting corn-fodder, 
there are some practical farmers who reject this whole 
doctrine, appealing to their individual experience as 
a refutation of it. They assure us that cattle will 
sometimes leave a portion of their stalks unconsuraed, 



THE STALK CROP. 183 

even when the latter have been cut before feeding ; 
and on this single, unimportant, misunderstood fact, 
the whole of their objection seems to be suspended. 

It is not to be denied that some portion of the cut 
stover is sometimes left uneaten in the feeding-box, 
though such cases will generally be found to arise 
either from imperfect cutting, or from the unsound 
condition of the stalk. If the stover is not cut suffi- 
ciently small to accomplish the intended object, or if 
it is mouldy from imperfect curing, these causes will 
naturally make some diiference in the amount con- 
sumed. But waiving this explanation entirely, and 
admitting the fact as broadly as it is asserted, that 
some part of the stalks will be rejected whether cut or 
uncut, it will yet be found that this fact itself, when 
rightly considered, amounts to nothing whatever as 
an argument against cutting or chaffing this fodder. 

For the purpose of illustrating this point, let us 
suppose a case, and let us put the facts as strongly as 
possible in favor of the objector. We will suppose 
that some farmer, in order to test this principle, di- 
vides his herd into three equal classes, feeding one- 
third with whole stalks, another with the same fod- 
der cat to half an inch, and the remaining third with 
the stover finely chafted and steamed. In order to 
be more accurate, he weighs the fodder, giving to each 
animal thirteen pounds at each feeding. After every 
meal the feed-boxes are examined, and the quantity 
left is carefully weighed. At the end of a week he 
finds that the cattle of the first division, that were fed 
with the whole stalks, have left, on an average, tkree 



184 ustdian coen". 

pounds each, out of every thirteen pounds received. 
He also finds that in both the other divisions each 
animal has left the same proportion (three pounds 
in thirteen) unconsumed. 

From these results he infers, without a moment's 
reflection, that there is no advantage in cutting his 
stalks. 

Now let us see whether this is a fair inference. 
His cattle have each received thirteen pounds at a 
feed, out of which they have eatsn ten pounds, reject- 
ing three. The primary question here is this : What 
is the amount of henefit derived hy each animal from 
the ten pounds eaten f That which he has not eaten, 
whether it were three pounds or thirty, has nothing 
to do with this comparison. The rejected food is a 
secondary matter, which, when separately considered 
and correctly explained, will be found to sustain 
rather than invalidate the theory here advocated. 

According to the general principle above eluci- 
dated, that cutting or crushing the food of animals to 
a greater degree of fineness increases the nutritive 
vahie, it will be seen that, in the case above stated, 
the cattle in the second division derived more benefit 
from each ten pounds consumed than those in the 
first division ; while those in the third class, which had 
their stover finely chafied and steamed, received much 
greater benefit from it than any of the others. In 
other words, the ten pounds of stover cut to half an 
inch were equal to thirteen pounds of the uncut, and 
the ten pounds chaffed and steamed were equivalent 
to sixteen pounds of the whole stalks. 



THE STALK CKOP. 185 

"While, therefore, the proprietor supposed he was 
feeding his cattle equally all around, he was virtually, 
and in effect, giving to one class thirteen pounds, to 
another about seventeen pounds, and to another nearly 
twenty-one pounds. 

If, now, instead of fixing his mind so exclusively 
ou the remnants, he had paid more attention to the 
food they ate, and to the effect produced by it ; if he 
had pushed his experiment further, and continued the 
feeding a few weeks longer, weighing his cattle at 
regular intervals, to determine the increase of flesh 
resulting from each mode of feeding, he would then, 
indeed, have fairly tested, on philosophical principles, 
the theory which he now supposes he has demolished 
with a few pounds of remnants. 

In regard to the amount of stover left unconsumed, 
the motive for rejection was not the same in each 
case. The cattle fed with the whole stalks, abandoned 
the last portion of them through fatigue and impa- 
tience. They found the labor of mastication too 
great, and the process too slow and tedious, and they 
gave it up in despair. On the other hand, those that 
received their fodder in better condition, relinquished 
the last part of it from mere satiety. They found 
their food so nutritious and satisfying, that less than 
the whole was sufficient for their requirements. All 
that is necessary to prevent waste in such cases, is to 
diminish the amount of food. 

An animal receiving twenty-one pounds at a meal, 
is much more likely to leave a portion of it, than one 
receiving only thirteen pounds ; and if a part is left 



186 INDIAN CORN. 

in both cases, these remainders, tliough both signifi- 
cant, have each a different import. The former indi- 
cates an appeased appetite and a contented animal. 
The latter proclaims the incompetency of the teeth, 
and the animal still hungry. The former teaches the 
proprietor that when the fodder is rightly prepared, a 
less amount is sufficient. The latter gives him to 
understand that when the stover is fed without cut- 
ting, however small the quantity, a part will be 
wasted ; and however large the amount, the animal 
will leave it unsatisfied. 

There is, on the whole, but one real objection to 
the practice of cutting this provender, and that is the 
expense connected with it. What the exact cost 
amounts to does not appear to have been as yet very 
accurately determined. But without knowing this 
precisely, it is easy to perceive that, in any event, the 
expense of chaffing and steaming or soaking, is far 
outweighed by the advantage gained. 

It has been estimated that, under favorable cir- 
cumstances, the cost of cutting and soaking will not 
vary greatly from seven or eight per cent, on the 
value of the stalks. When it is considered that the 
value is increased by this treatment not less than sixty 
per cent., and in the opinion of some farmers nearly 
one hundred per cent., it becomes evident that the 
objection has no practical force, and scarcely needs to 
be further considered. 

If the practice of chaffing and steaming the stover 
of corn and other kinds of torage were universal 



THE STALK CROP. 18T 

among our farmers, the effect would be to render the 
forty million tons of corn-stalks now raised in this 
country equivalent in value to more than sixty mil- 
lion tons ; the hay crop, which is now about twenty 
million tons, would be virtually increased to over 
thirty millions, and all other fodder capable of the 
same treatment would be augmented in the same pro- 
portion. This consideration is perhaps a sufficient 
apology for the space here devoted to an examination 
of the subject. 

Nutritive Value of the Cob. — The ears of Indian 
corn are frequently ground entire, before shelling, and 
the meal yielded by this process, being the joint prod- 
uct of the grain and cob, is found variously useful. 
Many farmers employ it quite extensively in feeding, 
and are well satisfied with the results, although there 
is some difference of opinion in regard to the utility 
of it. 

As corn-meal is considered a concentrated and 
somewhat stimulating food, and is therefore nearly 
always blended with some other provender when fed 
to stock, there seems to be no reason why the cob 
may not prove to be, when ground with the grain, at 
least a convenient and useful divisor for reducing the 
pure meal. 

But if the cob, while entirely free from all hurtful 
elements, is found to contain, at the same time, a pro- 
portion of nutritive value, then its adaptation to this 
object is clear and undoubted, and it becomes not only 
negatively useful as a divisor, but positively profitable 
as an addition to the feed. As chemistry has not de- 



188 INDIAN COKN. 

tected any injurious quality in the cob, but has shown 
that it contains a positive and available nutritive 
value, and as the testimony of experience is mainly in 
its favor, there seems to be no good reason why it 
should not be turned to a useful account. 

The ratio of the cob to the grain, when compared 
by weight, is found to be, on a general average, about 
as one to four, and the proportion it bears to the entire 
ear before shelling as one to five. 

According to chemical analysis there are in two 
hundred pounds of cobs about one hundred and twenty- 
seven pounds of fibre, and the balance consists of vari- 
ous substances capable of assimilation, including sugar 
and extract, dextrine or gum, glutinous matter, a 
proportion of soluble fibre, etc. There are therefore 
in every two hundred pounds of cobs not less than 
seventy-three pounds of available matter, more or less 
nutritive, which go to support respiration, to sustain 
animal heat, and are capable of being transformed 
into nerve, muscle, and bone. 

According to this view, there are in one thousand 
pounds of corn and cob meal the following constit- 
uents : 

Ground grain 800 lbs. 

Assimilable portion of the cob 73 

Nutritive matter 873 

Fibre of cob 127 

1,000 lbs. 

From this comparison it appears that, by grinding 
the cob with the corn, there is a gain of twenty-five 



THE STALK CROP. 189 

per cent, in the quantity of food, while the nutritive 
matter is increased between nine and ten per cent. 
At the same time the general quality of the product 
is in some respects improved, as the new compound 
contains more variety with less concentration than the 
corn-meal alone. It is, indeed, thought by some that 
the addition of the ground cob to the pure meal, by 
rendering the latter less compact in the stomach, and 
therefore more digestible, contributes a value nearly 
in proportion to its quantity, and that consequently 
the corn and cob meal is worth nearly as much in 
feeding, pound for pound, as the corn-meal alone. 

In some instances this estimate would perhaps be 
found not far from the truth ; but it would certainly 
not hold good in those cases where the meal is fed 
for fattening purposes. 

Mr. Henry A. Morgan, a New Jersey farmer, has 
communicated to the Working Farmer his estimate 
of the value of this feed, as derived from experiments. 
" I have lately," he writes, " adopted the practice of 
feeding corn and cob meal to my stock, and have 
found a very considerable advantage in it. Tlie chem- 
ical investigation of Dr. Salsbury and the trials made 
by Mr. Ellsworth and other practical men, so clearly 
indicate the value of corn cobs, that I have been in- 
duced to make some accurate experiments on the sub- 
ject. The result of these has satisfied me that corn 
cobs, when rightly used in feeding, are worth more 
than one-fourth of the same weight of hay, and nearly 
one-eighth of their weight of corn. As this is a mat- 
ter of some interest to stock farmers, many of whom 



190 



INDIAN COKN. 



are readers of your jourDal, I have thought it might 
be well to call their attention to the subject, and it 
may perhaps lead to further investigation and useful 
results." 

In a late number of the Country Gentleman, Mr. 
K. T. Selden, of Westchester Co., New York, has re- 
ported some experiments in feeding, that seem to 
throw a clear light on this subject. " I have been try- 
ing," he remarks, " some experiments with corn-stalks, 
and also with corn and cob meal. When the stalks 
are cut about an inch long, I find my cattle and sheep 
will eat nearly one-third more of them tlian of the 
whole stalks. Also I find that when I cut them much 
smaller — say one-fourth or one-eighth inch — and pour 
hot water over them, to stand a few hours, the differ- 
ence is so great I can hardly believe it. They do not 
leave a gill, and they thrive on it wonderfully. I find, 
by a fair and careful trial, that they gain on this fod- 
der more than on the best hay. 

"I have also tried grinding my corn in the ear 
with an iron mill. I have long thought the cob to be 
nutritious, and I have now given it a full trial. I be- 
lieve it |s said the cob weighs one-fifth of the whole 
ear. ^^'or the sake of giving it a fair test, I have fed 
alongside of this another preparation, which is corn- 
meal without the cob, but instead of the cob one-fifth 
weight of oat-straw cut fine. In this mixture the 
weight of oat-straw is the same as the weight of the 
cob in the other, so as to make a fair comparison. 

" After trying for several weeks, I found the com 
and cob meal came out a little ahead ; that is, the 



THE STALK CEOP. 191 

cattle and sheep fed on tlie corn and cob meal gained 
more in weight than those fed with meal and cut 
straw. I do not know how much value there is in 
oat -straw ; but, so far as my experience goes, I think 
the corn-cob a little the best. I have also tried this 
com and cob feed mixed with cut stalks, and when the 
mass is well soaked in hot water, it makes one of the 
best feeds I have ever used. One of my neighbors 
says he thinks this mixture almost equal to pure 
grain for fattening beef or making butter. It seems 
to me that if these three parts of corn are made fine 
and mixed in the right quantity, it must make a most 
excellent kind of feed for nearly all purposes. 

" All the above experiments were carefully made 
by weight and measure." 

But there is another consideration commending to 
farmers the use of this feed. By employing a portable 
mill or crusher, of which there are several kinds in 
successful use, they will find both economy and con- 
venience in grinding their ears at home, instead of 
shelling the corn and sending it to the mill. It has 
been estimated that the expense of shelling the corn, 
conveying it to the mill, paying the toll, and trans- 
porting the meal back to the farm again, is sufficient 
to pay for crushing twice the quantity at home. That 
is, twenty bushels of the grain alone, ground at the 
mill, would cost as much as forty bushels of grain, 
with the included cob, ground at home. In the opin- 
ion of some, the gain is even more than this. 

According to this estimate, the farmer wbo uses 
a crushing-mill not only gets his cobs ground for 



192 INDIAN COKN. 

nothing, but he also gets his grain ground at half 
price. 

On the other hand, it is the opinion of some feed- 
ers that this mode of grinding does not render the meal 
sufficiently tine to get the full beneiit of the nutritive 
value in feeding. There is, perhaps, some weight in 
this objection if the meal is fed raw or dry. But if 
cooked or steamed before feeding, or even if thoroughly 
soaked, the objection is obviated, and a still further 
value is imparted to the feed. 

An Ohio correspondent of the Country Gentleman^ 
after an experience of five years in grinding his ears 
at home, pronounces it a complete success. He con- 
verts, as he informs the editor of that journal, from 
six to ten bushels of ears per hour into meal, which he 
feeds to chickens of two days old, and so on, up to the ox 
of two thousand lbs. ; and fattens from eight to twelve 
head of cattle every winter with satisfactory returns. 

A correspondent of the Prairie Farmer, after feed- 
ing his cows for over two years by this method, states 
that they do much better than formerly, and that he 
finds a gain of one-third in the use of this feed. 

If some definite conclusion, or even a probable 
estimate were formed, as to the relative value of the 
cob, wJien compared with any known standard, it 
would give perhaps a clearer view of what it is actually 
worth in feeding. Chemistry has shown that seventy- 
three parts in two hundred are more or less nutritious. 
Experience has also proved that it possesses this quality 
in a considerable degree. But here opinions difi'er, some 
rating its nutritive value much higher than others. 



THE STALK CEOP. 193 

By most farmers wlio make use of the cob, it is 
compared witli tlie straw of the cereals, and seems to 
be considered equal to them on a general average. 
The editor of the Rural Annual considers it equal to 
good wheat-straw. Some others compute its value to 
be quite equal to that of the best oat-straw. If we 
take the average value of the straw of wheat, oats, 
barley, and rye, compared with hay as a standard, it 
will give three hundred and fifty pounds of the former, 
equal to one hundred pounds of the latter. That is to 
say, the value of good hay is three and a half times 
greater than the mean value of those straws. If this 
ratio is taken to represent the value of the corn-cob, as 
compared with that of hay, the estimate would seem to 
be, at least, a reasonable approximation to the truth. 

KUTEITIVE YalUE OF CoEN AND CoB MeAL. If we 

now calculate the value of the grain, by referring it to 
the same standard, we shall then be able to see how the 
cob compares in value with the corn, and also to de- 
termine the value of the corn and cob meal, as com- 
pared with that of hay. 

The grain of Indian corn has been variously rated 
as to its actual worth for feeding. This must neces- 
sarily depend, in some measure, upon the animal to 
which it is fed, and in part upon the object for which 
it is given. Its general nutritive value, according to 
Prof. Johnston, as indicated by experiments made by 
difierent persons in difierent countries, is to that of 
hay as one to two ; five pounds of it being given as 
equal to ten pounds of hay. But when the object is 
to produce beef, butter, mutton, or pork, its effective 
9 



194: INDIAN CORN. 

value is very much greater. Three pounds of corn, 
and even less, have not iinfrequently produced a 
pound of pork ; and for making mutton, it is said to 
be even more effective than this. 

On the whole, the feeding value of this grain, 
when used for the purpose of converting it into any 
of the above products, will perhaps be fairly repre- 
sented by taking forty pounds of it, and when used for 
other purposes, fifty pounds, as equivalent to one 
hundred pounds of hay. This will give a mean ratio 
of forty-five pounds of corn to represent one hundred 
pounds of hay. But to render the estimate free from 
any reasonable doubt, let us take forty-eight pounds 
as equivalent to one hundred j)ounds of hay ; then, 
according to the valuation given above for the cob, 
we shall have : 

Lbs. of Hay. Lbs. of Corn. Lbs. of Cob. 

100 = 48 = 350 

There are, therefore, in one thousand lbs. of corn 
and cob meal : 

Lbs. Lbs. 

Ground Corn 800 = 1,666 of hay. 

Ground Cob 200 = 57 " 

Corn and Cob Meal 1.000 = 1,723 

From this comparison it appears that the value of 
corn and cob meal is seventy-two per cent, greater 
than that of hay, and it is by no means improbable 
that further experience, and more systematic experi- 
ments in feeding, will show, what some ah*eady be- 
lieve, that its true value is higher than this. 



THE STALK CROP. 195 

Philosophy teaches us that things, apparently triv- 
ial in themselves, sometimes derive from circum- 
stances a consequence unperceived by the casual ob- 
server. Some idea associated with quantity or num- 
bers, some relation to a system or class, some fact il- 
lustrating an undeveloped possibility ; these, or similar 
causes, frequently rescue from insignificance an object 
deemed useless or paltry, and invest it with an unsus- 
pected interest, dignity, or value. 

The farmer who casts out the corn-cob from his 
crib, as a thing utterly worthless, and fit only to be 
trodden to the earth, is probably unconscious of the 
utility it is capable of, and still less aware of the ex- 
tent and value of the class it represents ; little sus- 
pecting that the corn-cobs raised every year in the 
United States, contain a sufficient amount of nutri- 
ment to winter seven hundred and fifty thousand cat- 
tle, and are worth in the aggregate not less than fif- 
teen million dollars. 

Nutritive Yalue of Corn and Cob Meal com- 
bined WITH Chaffed Stalks. — Let us now examine 
the economical value of the feed we have been con- 
sidering, when further combined, as it frequently is, 
with the stover of corn finely chafied. Let us take 
the three several products of the corn crop — the grain, 
the cob, and the stalk — and suppose them to be com- 
bined in the same proportions in which Nature pro- 
duces them. 

We will take, for illustration, the product of one 
acre, assuming the yield to be one hundred bushels 
of grain, at fifty- six pounds to the bushel. The pro- 



196 INDIAIT CORN. 

portion of stalks will be about one ton to each twenty- 
five busbels of grain, and the weight of the cob is 
one-quarter of the weight of the grain. We shall 
therefore have, as the product of the acre, the follow- 
ing amount of feed : 

Grain 5,600 lbs. 

Cob 1,400 

Com and Cob Meal 7,000 

Stalks 8,000 

Total product of the acre 15,000 

ITow by comparing these with the same standard 
of value as before, the stover being equal to its weight 
of hay, and the meal being equivalent to seventy-two 
per cent, more than its own weight of hay, we shall 
find the feeding value of the acre of corn to be as 
follows : 

Lbs. Lbs. 

Corn and Cob Meal 7,000 == 12,040 of bay. 

Chopped stalks 8,000 = 8,000 

Total amount of feed 15,000 = 20,040 

With some varieties of corn, however, the propor- 
tion of stover would be less than the above estimate. 
Taking the product of stalks, for such cases, at three 
tons instead of four, the total amount of feed would 
be thirteen thousand pounds — equal to eighteen thou- 
sand and forty pounds of hay. In one case, then, 
we have nine tons of hay, and in the other case ten 
tons, as the measure of the feeding value of one acre 
of com. 



THE STALK CEOP. . 197 

In every instance where this feed is employed for 
the purpose of being converted into beef, mutton, 
butter, etc., the effective value of the grain is greater 
than we have estimated it, and will give a higher re- 
sult. If the entire product of the above acre were 
used for fattening purposes, the aggregate feeding 
value would be from two to three tons higher than 
the estimate here given. 

It will perhaps be said by some, that one hundred 
bushels of corn per acre is an uncommon yield, quite 
out of the ordinary range, and that most farmers 
therefore would not be able to realize the above re- 
sult. From this opinion, or rather from the inference 
in the last clause, we must beg leave to differ. We 
do not believe that there is a farmer in the United 
States who is not able to raise one hundred bushels of 
corn per acre. He may lack the knowledge, or the 
resolute purj)ose, and there are many who lack both. 
But where these are both present, the ability is not 
wanting. 

The farmer who makes up his mind to raise one 
hundred bushels of corn on an acre, will generally do 
it. He who begins by saying he is " not able," will 
certainly not do it. He will take good care to keep 
his word. Such men are usually very tender of their 
veracity. Those who are continually proclaiming to 
the world, when any thing comes up to be done, that 
they are " not able " to do it, have invariably one ad- 
vantage. They require no logic to prove their asser- 
tion. The world is always ready to believe them. 



198 INDIAN CORN. 

" 'Not able " is indeed a miscliievous phrase, that 
has done much harm in society as well as in agricul- 
ture. The peculiarity of the evil is, that the want of 
faith produces the inability. The assertion, in a cer- 
tain sense, creates the fact, and makes that virtually 
true which was not true before. This plirase is the 
enemy of the farmer, and should be pursued and ex- 
terminated with the same zeal that he employs in 
pursuing the vermin that devour his crops, or the 
weeds that infest his soil. 

"We repeat, then, that every farmer who chooses 
may raise one hundred bushels of corn, and even more 
than this, upon an acre. How much better he can 
do than this must depend upon himself. As this 
question, however, is considered in a subsequent chap- 
ter, it need not here be dwelt upon. 

Let us now compare the nutritive value of corn 
per acre with that of some other leading crops, taking 
the yield of the latter on the same scale as the above 
yield of corn. It will probably be conceded that 
sixty bushels of wheat, ninety bushels of oats, fifteen 
tons of potatoes, and twenty tons, on an average, for 
other root crops, per acre, would be at least as large 
a yield in proportion for these crops as one hundred 
bushels would be for corn. 

By referring the nutritive value of these several 
products to the same standard as before, which was 
good meadow hay, it will be found that the wheat 
crop, as compared with com, yields about one-half 
the amount of nutritive value per acre ; the oat crop 
still less than the wheat; the potato about three- 



THE STALK CEOP. 199 

fourths the amount of corn, and the other root crops 
less than the potato. 

To state the comparison more definitely, it would 
be very nearly as follows : 



Nutritive value of Wheat, per acre = 10,000 lbs. of hay. 


a a 


Oats, " = 9,000 


a a 


Potatoes " = 15,000 


(( (1 


other root crops = 14,000 


t( (( 


Oom, per acre = 20,000 



COST OF PKODUCTION. 

This is a subject of vital interest to the cultivator. 
It is indeed the great practical question in husbandry, 
to which all others are justly considered subordinate. 
When the farmer has harvested his crop, it is his first 
concern to know what every bushel of grain has cost 
him. Whether his yield is fifty bushels per acre, or 
one hundred and fifty, is doubtless a matter of some 
consequence, and one which he is likely to under- 
stand ; but whether it has cost him twenty-five cents 
a bushel, or seventy-five cents, is a matter of still 
higher moment, and a question far too important to 
be settled upon any principle of guess-work, as it too 
frequently is. 

To be accurately posted on this point is neither 
impossible nor difficult, and is moreover quite indis- 
pensable to the success of the farmer as a business 
man. Though a large yield of corn, nay, even the 
largest yield of his town or county, is to every enter- 
prising cultivator an object of commendable ambi- 
tion ; yet, when the object is achieved, the value to 
him of Buch yield depends, after all, upon what it has 



COST OF PEODUCTION. 201 

cost him, and not merely this, but also upon his know- 
ing the cost. In fact, without this knowledge, all the 
business of his farm is at loose ends, and all the oper- 
ations he embarks in are involved in uncertainty. 

It is easy to perceive that the cost of producing 
this crop must necessarily exhibit a marked diversity 
in different sections of the country, and this is espe- 
cially noticeable in comparing the expenses of corn- 
culture at the East with those of the West. But 
there are also other causes of difference, so numerous 
and pervading, that it is a rare circumstance to find 
any two estimates in all respects alike, even in the 
same section or neighborhood. 

For the purpose of comparison and reference, we 
here submit a few statements and estimates relating 
to the expense of corn-culture in the various sections 
of the country that have been reported during the 
past two decades. 

In the Transactions of the New York State Agri- 
cultural Society for 1848, Levi T. Marshall, of Oneida 
County, is reported to have raised eighty-seven bush- 
els per acre, on two acres of ground, at a cost of sev- 
enteen and three-fourths cents per bushel, making the 
expense per acre equal to fifteen dollars and forty-four 
cents. 

A farmer in St. Lawrence County, N". Y., at a 
later date, reports the cost of his crop to the Country 
Gentleman at twenty-seven cents per bushel, and six- 
teen dollars and sixty-six cents per acre. 

Another farmer, of Shelburne, Mass., in a commu- 
nication to the same journal, states that the cost of 
9* 



202 INDIAN CORN. 

his crop was twenty-three cents per bushel for the 
grain, being at the rate of twelve dollars and thirtj- 
six cents per acre. 

Mr. Dickerraan, of Conn., reports to the Agricul- 
turist a crop of one thousand bushels, raised at an 
expense of about six hundred dollars, which is sixty 
cents per bushel, the expense per acre being about 
twenty-six dollars. 

H. S. Senter, of Mercer County, HI., writes to the 
same journal that his crop of one thousand four hun- 
dred and forty bushels was raised at an expense of 
ninety-one dollars, which is less than seven cents per 
bushel. 

Mr. "Walker, of Concord, N. II., gives the expense 
of a crop raised by himself at forty -nine and three- 
fifths cents per bushel, or twenty-four dollars and 
eighty cents per acre. 

Jonathan Roberts, of Montgomery County, Penn., 
has calculated the expense of his maize crop at nine- 
teen dollars per acre, and thirty-one and two-thirds 
cents per bushel. 

In Mr. Colman's Report to the Legislature of Mas- 
sachusetts he gives two crops from the same town, 
showing a very wide difference in the expense of rais- 
ing them ; the one costing nineteen cents per bushel, 
and the other fifty-seven cents. In this case one 
farmer paid three times as much per bushel for his 
corn as the other. 

A crop raised in Deerfield is quoted in the same 
report as costing twenty-two dollars and sixty-seven 
cents per acre, and forty-five and one-third cents per 



COST OF PKODirCTION. 203 

bushel; and another crop in Shelburne is given at 
thirty-five dollars and seventy-seven cents per acre, 
and fifty-one cents per bushel. 

A correspondent of the Prairie Farmer reports a 
crop in Warren County, 111., of four thousand bushels, 
that cost from nine to ten cents per bushel of ears. 

In a report recently made to the Whately and 
Deerfield Farmers' Club, Mass., Edward C. Parker is 
stated to have produced a crop of com at a cost of 
forty-two and a half cents per bushel. In this case 
the net profit per acre was eighty-three dollars and 
forty-four cents, the grain being estimated at one 
dollar per bushel, and the stover at ten dollars per 
ton. 

In the same report, the crop of Charles Hagar is 
given at a cost of forty-three and a half cents per 
bushel. The profit per acre was here fifty dollars ; 
the price of the corn and stover being the same as 
above. These were prize crops, the former taking 
the first and the latter the second premium.* 

In the statements here presented the expense per 
acre, as far as given, averages twenty-one dollars and 
fifty-eight cents. The cost per bushel ranges from 
seven cents to sixty cents, giving an average of thirty- 
two cents. 



* In these two cases the cost of each crop was calculated without 
deducting the value of the stalks. But the latter is the method of esti- 
mating more generally practised. Had the value of the stalks been 
here deducted from the expense, the cost per bushel would have been 
very much less. In the former case it would have been twenty-four 
cents per bushel, and in the latter nineteen cents. 



204 INDIAN CORN. 

In one of the Annual Keports of the Patent OflSce 
is a series of statements from farmers in nearly all the 
States of the Union, in which the estimated cost per 
bushel ranged from seven cents in Iowa to seventy- 
five cents in Massachusetts, making an average of 
about twenty-seven cents per bushel. If we combine 
this with the above average of thirty-two cents, it will 
make a general average of about thirty cents per 
bushel, which is probably not far from the true cost 
of production for Indian corn in the United States 
during a period extending over the last twenty years. 

The extreme figures between which this average 
lies are seven cents in Illinois and Iowa, and seventy - 
five cents in Massachusetts. Probably the actual dif- 
ference between the two sections of the country would 
be fairly stated if we should call the average cost of 
production in the "Western States fifteen to twenty 
cents per bushel, and in the Eastern States thirty-five 
cents. 

On the other hand, this marked difference between 
the East and the West, in regard to the expense of 
raising corn, is perhaps compensated, if not more than 
tliis, by the difference in the market value of the grain. 

But let us look a little more closely into this ques- 
tion of cost of production, to discover whether it is 
possible to reduce it below the present average, and 
if so, by what means. A careful investigation of the 
subject will perhaps make it appear tliat the true 
method of reducing the cost per bushel of Indian 
corn is to be found in increasing rather than diminish- 
ing the expense per acre, provided this is done on 



COST OF PRODUCTION. 205 

sound principles, and with good judgment. In other 
words, the farmer who adopts the best methods of cul- 
ture will discover that, as a general rule, and up to a 
certain limit, the more he pays out per acre for extra 
culture and fertilization, the more grain he will get 
back, and the less will be the cost per bushel. 

There is a certain amount of work that must be 
done upon each acre of ground, before any grain 
whatever can be produced. A certain amount of ex- 
pense is inevitable for even the lowest rate of produc- 
tion. Let us, then, endeavor to ascertain this lowest 
limit of expense per acre. 

No farmer attempts to raise a crop of maize with- 
out ploughing the ground, at least once. His land 
has then to be marked out and planted, and when the 
grain is ripe, the crop is harvested and stored. This 
may be considered the lowest stage of corn-culture in 
which there is no manure employed and no after- 
tillage. The items of expense, in this case, would 
probably be, on an average, as follows : 

Ploughmg $2 00 

Marking, planting, and seed 2 00 

Harvesting 3 00 

Rent 5 00 

$12 00 

These figures are of course variable, according to 
locality and other circumstances, but will be found on 
an average very nearly as stated. 

The yield of the above acre must, of necessity, be 
very low, and cannot safely be estimated at more than 



206 INDIAN CORN. 

fifteen bushels. The stalks, according to the ratio be- 
fore given, would amount to three-fifths of a ton, 
which, at six dollars * per ton, would be three dollars 
and sixty cents. We should then have the following 
result : 

Total expense of one acre $12 00 

Deduct value of stalks 3 60 

Cost of fifteen bushels of Grain $8 40 

which makes the cost per bushel fifty-six cents. 

This estimate includes only those items of expense 
that are unavoidable. The other usual expenses of 
corn-culture, including harrowing, cross-ploughing, 
after-tillage, manure, etc., are all optional. Now here, 
in these optional expenses, is precisely where the profit 
lies. 

The farmer has in this case paid out twelve dol- 
lars to bring his acre up to the point where production 
begins. After that, every dollar judiciously added 
goes straight to the mark, and tells powerfully on the 
yield. The outlay of twelve dollars he is compelled 
to incur, before he realizes a single kernel, and 
whether he gets five bushels or fifty. The other ex- 
penses are discretionary and variable, and what is 
most important the crop varies with them, and can 
only be increased by increasing them, or some part 
of them. 

* This is much too low for the true value of good stalks ; but as 
there are always some farmers who insist on computing their stover at 
half its real worth, it is perhaps as well to adapt the illustration to 
their standard. 



COST OF PKODTJCTTON. 30? 

To illustrate this, let us take the same acre, and 
superadd the following treatment : Let the ground be 
cross-ploughed and harrowed before planting, and let 
the crop be twice cultivated during its growth. The 
whole expense would then foot up as follows, allowing 
for a slight addition to the cost of harvesting : 

Ploughing twice and haiTOwing $4 50 

Marking, planting, and seed 2 00 

After-culture, twice through 4 00 

Hai'vesting 3 60 

Eent 5 00 

$19 00 

The yield in this instance, with ordinary care, 
would probably reach thirty-five or forty bushels ; but 
may safely be assumed at thirty bushels. The stalks 
would, in that case, amount to one and one-fifth tons, 
which, at the value above stated, would be worth seven 
dollars and twenty cents, giving the following result : 

Total expense of crop $19 00 

Deduct value of stalks V 20 

Cost of 30 bushels of grain $11 80 

bringing the cost per bushel to thirty-nine cents and 
a fraction. 

We will now suppose this acre to be cultivated in 
a more expensive manner, by increasing the amount 
of tillage and adding manure, making the entire cost 
as follows : 



20 50 



208 INDIAN COKN. 

Previous espense $19 00 

To wliicli add: 

Manure $16 00 

Subsoiling 3 00 

Extra harrowing 1 00 

Increased expenses of harvesting 50 

Total expense of crop $39 50 

Taking the yield of this crop at an average proba- 
bility, it could scarcely be less than seventy-five or 
eighty bushels. But calling it seventy bushels, this 
would give two and four-fifth tons of stover, worth 
sixteen dollars and eighty cents. 

From the above expense is to be deducted, not 
merely the value of the stalks, but also one-half the 
outlay for manure and for subsoiling, as the effect of 
these is not limited to a single season, but extends to 
successive crops. The net result, therefore, of this 
crop will be as follows : 

Total expense $39 60 

From which deduct half the cost of manure and 

sub-soiling 9 50 



$30 00 
From this deduct value of stalks 16 80 



Cost of 70 bushels of grain $13 20 

which makes the cost per bushel about nineteen 
cents. 

ITow, on comparing the results of these thi-ee crops 
from the same acre, we find that by increasing the 
expense of cultivation, the cost per bushel is reduced 
successively from fifty-six cents to thirty-nine cents and 
nineteen cents. This reasoning is of course theoreti- 



COST OF PKODTJCTION. 209 

cal, but if the figures assumed are reasonable and con- 
sistent with experience, it carries with it the force of 
great probability. 

Bj extending the illustration still further, we 
should find that the cost of production would be re- 
duced yet lower. If, for instance, in the crop last 
given, the amount of manure were doubled, and the 
after-culture again repeated, the probable yield on a 
fair soil with good management would not be less 
than one hundred bushels per acre, which would 
bring the cost per bushel to sixteen cents. 

On comparing the figures assumed throughout 
this investigation with thpse of similar crops actually 
raised and frequently reported, it will be found that 
the estimates above made are entirely probable, and 
that any reasoning founded upon them becomes a fair 
presumptive argument. 

In the following table the results of these four 
successive crops are brought together, omitting frac- 
tions, for the purpose of comparison. The table also 
indicates the money value of each crop, supposing the 
corn to be worth seventy-five cents per bushel, and 
the stalks six dollars per ton, and it further shows 
the rate of profit per acre, per bushel, and on the in- 
vestment. 

In the second column the net expense per acre is 
obtained by deducting the value of the stalks from the 
gross expense. This mode of estimating the cost of 
corn is usually adopted by farmers, though not strictly 
correct. 

In the fifth column the money value per acre in- 
cludes the value of the grain and stalks : 



210 



INDIAN COKN. 





1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


6 


7 


8 


^ 
g 


1 S. 

Eh 




p. 
1 

o 


2 . 
It 


i s. 


1 

Ph 


1 


" S 
g a 

1-^ 


l8t. 


$12 00 


$S 40 


56 eta. 


15 


$14 85 


$2 85 


19 cts. 


23 per ct. 


2d.. 


19 00 


11 80 


39 


80 


29 70 


10 70 


86 


56 " 


8d.. 


80 00 


13 20 


19 


70 


69 30 


39 30 


56 


131 " 


4th. 


40 00 


13 00 


16 


100 


99 00 


59 00 


59 


147 " 



This table is based on plain and simple principles 
of busbandry. But by the use of special manures, 
by more elaborate disintegration of the soil, and by 
closer planting, which last is only warranted with 
copious manuring and deep pulverization, a still 
lower cost of production might undoubtedly be 
reacjfied. 

There is a large class of soils in which all the 
elements of maize are to be found, with the exception 
of some one or two that hap pen to be almost entirely 
absent. In every such instance the application of 
special manures, if rightly selected, is attended with 
the highest advantage, not unfrequently doubling the 
yield at a trifling expense. 

But in order to obtain such results, the soil must 
be understood by its owner. Unless he knows pre- 
cisely which element is wanting, he is very unlikely 
to be successful in supplying it. If he applies the 
wrong fertilizer, he might nearly as well apply none. 
In either case, the crop will hardly be worth gather- 
ing. But if he gives to his land the specific manure 



COST OF PKODTJCTION. 211 

called for, it not merely increases the product, but it 
makes all the difterence between a maximum and a 
minimum yield. With the wi'ong fertilizer or with 
none, the cost of the grain would very likely be a 
dollar per bushel, or more ; with the right fertilizer it 
would probably be ten cents per bushel, or less. 

In all such cases as this, and also in every in- 
stance where the soil is naturally and unusually rich 
in corn-elements, and in nearly all cases of the highest 
and best system of culture, the cost of production 
could probably be brought to a lower figure than 
the lowest in the table. 

But there are other points in the table that de- 
serve attention. By referring to the second and 
fourth columns it will be seen that in the first crop the 
farmer gets fifteen bushels of corn at a net cost of 
eight dollars and forty cents. In the second crop he 
gets the same, and fifteen bushels more for an addi- 
tional cost of three dollars and forty cents ; showing 
that the second fifteen bushels cost him less than half 
the price of the first. In the third crop he gets the 
first thirty bushels at the same cost as in the second, 
and forty bushels more at an additional cost of one 
dollar and forty cents. In the fourth crop the first 
seventy bushels cost him the same as in the third, 
and he gets thirty bushels more for an additional cost 
of two dollars and eighty cents. 

It is also worth while to notice the ratio of increase 
in the profit per acre, as compared with the amount 
invested. Thus when in the first crop he invests twelve 
dollars, the profit on the acre is but two dollars and 



212 INDIAN CORN. 

eighty-five cents. In the second crop, by adding seven 
dollars to the investment, the profit per acre rises to ten 
dollars and seventy cents ; showing that while the first 
twelve dollars earn twenty-three per cent., the next 
seven dollars earn over one hundred per cent. In the 
third crop, by adding eleven dollars more to the invest- 
ment, the profit on the acre reaches thirty-nine dollars 
and thirty cents ; and finally, by adding, in the fourth 
crop, ten dollars more, the profit per acre rises to 
fifty -nine dollars. 

It will also be observed, by referring to the eighth 
column, that the rate of profit on the capital em- 
ployed advances by a ratio no less rapid and remark- 
able from twenty-three per cent, to one hundred and 
forty-seven per cent. 

JSTow it is not claimed that the illustration here 
presented has all the precision and certainty of a 
mathematical demonstration. Yet it is believed to 
be a fair statement of average results such as would 
occur in the ordinary practice of farmers. In assuming 
one hundred bushels as the yield of the fourth crop, the 
amount is doubtless liable to exceptions. It would 
not probably be reached in an adverse season, nor on 
a poor soil, and least of all by a slovenly farmer who 
is wiser than all the books and journals. But it is a 
product often obtained at a less outlay than the 
amount assumed, and it will scarcely fail to be equalled 
or surpassed, when this amount of expense is rightly 
applied. 

But there is another contingency that is liable 
to afiect some of the figures in the above table, and 



COST OF PRODUCTIOJSr. 



213 



which would render them much more striking, though 
no less correct. When corn is consumed on the farm 
where it grows, it pays the owner a better price than 
the market quotations. Yery many farmers, by con- 
verting this grain into pork, mutton, beef, or butter, 
are enabled to realize for it a dollar or more per 
bushel, even when it is bringing seventy-five cents or 
less in market. 

]^ow, if the price of corn were taken at one dollar 
in the table instead of seventy-five cents, the results, 
or a part of them, would be not only more remarkable, 
but, in a large class of cases, nearer the truth. The 
third and fourth crops, at this price, would give the 



following 


exhibit : 












p^ 


a . 


2 


4 

3 


i^- 


§ 




1 


^g 


o 


ys 


S-S 


a. 




ll 


p. 


Bi 


§1 


O 


3 S. 


» P. 


O 


1-' 






£ 


fi.9 


8d.. 


$30 00 


$13 20 


19 cts. 


70 


$86 80 


$56 80 


81 cts. 


189 per ct 


4th. 


40 00 


10 00 


16 


100 


124 00 


84 00 


84 


210 " 



Perhaps the most instructive lesson contained in 
these tables is to be found in the great principle 
which stands out clear and conspicuous, that the last 
part of the yield, or the extra yield ^produced hy each 
addition to the expense, is thejpart that pays the profit. 

This principle is well understood and acted upon 
in some other branches of industry, and why should 
it not be equally improved in husbandry ? Publishers 
have long since discovered that the success of a book 



214 INDIAN COEN. 

or magazine depends mainly on the excess of sales 
beyond a certain number of copies, and their plans 
are shaped accordingly. 

Journalists are well aware that the profit of their 
business lies in the last ten, or twenty, or fifty thou- 
sand of their circulation. Hence any and all means 
by which this vast circulation may be secured are 
promptly and fearlessly adopted, without regard to 
expense. Ingenious and costly expedients are em- 
ployed to swell the subscription list, and the reading 
community are reached, through every channel of 
approach, with a splendid array of inducements to 
subscribers. The catalogue of liberal offers embraces 
an endless variety of things useful and ornamental 
which are equally creditable to the taste, skill, and 
munificence of the proprietor. To furnish out the list 
of premiums, the world of art, and two of the king- 
doms of nature, are laid under contribution. Seed- 
packages, gold pencils, valuable barometers, and costly 
engravings are marshalled into the service to enact 
the part of canvassers. 

Some things hitherto applied, through ignorance, 
to mistaken uses, have by this means been restored to 
their proper functions. It has thus been discovered 
that the true and original design of the strawberry is 
to attract subscribers to the better class of journals ; 
and that sewing-machines, formerly supposed to be 
useful in constructing garments, were mainly intended 
by the inventor to guide the popular choice in select- 
ing the best periodicals. 

All this is doubtless right and proper in a business 



COST OF PRODUCTION. 215 

way — a strictly legitimate proceeding, which proves 
the sagacity of the publisher, who clearly compre- 
hends, not merely the absolute necessity of the first ten 
thousand subscribers, but the gilt-edged value of the 
last fifty thousand. 

In like manner, and on the same principle, the 
clear-headed and well-informed cultivator will be 
prompt to perceive and appreciate, not only the utility 
of the first twenty or thirty bushels of his corn crop, 
but also and equally the gold-bearing value of the 
last fifty or one hundred bushels which are added to 
the yield by a slight increase in the expense of culture. 

To secure the latter yield, the farmer need not re- 
sort to any costly means of tempting JSTature into an 
abnormal munificence. She is never wanting in gen- 
erosity to those who are in true sympathy with her, 
who study out her laws and comply with them. 

Instead of large disbursements for premium lists, 
the farmer has only to invest his spare dollars in im- 
proved implements, fertilizing materials, and agricul- 
tural journals. These are the great agents and insurers 
of successful husbandry, and no cultivator of the soil 
who understands his interest will ever be without 
them. 



HOW TO OBTAESr A LARGE YIELD OE 
CORN. 

Having treated of the productive capacity of In- 
dian com ; having shown by numerous instances, as 
well as by reference to natural laws, that it is capable 
of a more bountiful yield than is usually obtained ; 
and having urged upon farmers the possibility as well 
as the duty of increasing the acreable product of this 
grain, they will perhaps turn to the author with the 
natural inquiry, " How are these desirable yields to 
be achieved ? " 

If we refer them to other pages of this book where 
general instructions on the subject are laid down, 
there are some who will, perhaps, insist that the in- 
formation given is not sufficiently definite, and will 
ask for more specific directions ; considering it a mat- 
ter of course that a work devoted to the subject should 
furnish a perfect form for each particular process, and 
some infallible fertilizer equally adapted to every va- 
riety of soil. 

To those who entertain this view of the matter, a 
book that should prescribe an exact method of raising 



HOW TO OBTAIN A LARGE YIELD OF CORK. 217 

com to be meclianically followed in every case from 
beginning to end, laying down in detail each particu- 
lar step to be taken without discretion, proposing in 
connection with this a specific manure to be used on 
all occasions, and claiming that the infallible result 
would be a marvellous and unheard-of yield, would 
doubtless prove attractive, and probably be hailed as 
a useful work. But the author of such a book would 
justly be pronounced a charlatan, and would deserve 
their contempt. 

There are, probably, very few farmers in the coun- 
try who do not know that there is not, and cannot be 
any patent, labor-saving process for turning out two 
or three hundred bushels of corn from an acre. The 
mistake of these men lies in expecting too much. 
They would have the results without complying with 
the conditions. They do not seem to remember that 
large yields of corn, as of other crops, have never yet 
been stereotyped, to be mechanically reproduced at 
will ; nor do they, on the other hand, spring from 
accident or neglect. They are the prizes which in- 
dustry, intelligence, and skill carry away in the face 
of contingencies, and in spite of obstacles. 

If there were indeed a new, easy, and infallible 
method of raising com, with all the elements of un- 
certainty left out, promising large yields with little 
labor and less thought, and imposing no tax upon 
either muscle or brain, we should then see all the 
world turning farmers, and all the farmers growing 
rapidly rich. 

But, happily, the class of men who indulge these 
10 



218 INDIAN CORN. 

absurd expectations are few in number. The great 
majority of American agriculturists are men of sense 
and reason. When they aim at large returns, they 
expect to make corresponding exertion. When they 
inquire how they are to obtain a large yield, they do 
not imagine they can dispense with the needed effort. 
What they wish to know is, how to secure a large 
product with reasonable eifort, and at the same time 
make the yield a jprofitahle one. This is the inquiry 
continually and everywhere raised by intelligent 
farmers. 

Although a general answer to this inquiry is to be 
found on other pages of the present work, yet, in view 
of the importance of the subject, and for the sake of a 
more full illustration, we will endeavor to present an 
answer, if possible, more definite, clear, and distinct. 

In every stage of corn culture, from the first to the 
last, there is some one method that is better than any 
other. In the preparation of the ground there are 
many difierent ways of proceeding, but there is only 
one best way. For enriching the soil there is a nu- 
merous catalogue of manures, and various modes of 
applying them ; but some one, or a few of them, are 
better than all the rest. The same is true in regard 
to steeping the seed. Also in the distribution of the 
grains at planting, as well as in the depth of covering 
them, there is for each a diversity of plans ; but there 
is one that will give the largest yield. In like man- 
ner, the after-culture also has its own superior process 
that is more productive than any other. 

When all these preferable modes are ascertained 



HOW TO OBTAIN A LAEGE YIELD OF CORN. 219 

by the farmer, and blended together in one system 
of culture, tliey form a comprehensive best method, 
which embraces all the conditions of success, and 
must, from the very nature of the case, give higher 
results than any other. But this method is different 
for each different soil, and varies according to other 
varying circumstances. 

Yet for every farmer in the country, without any 
exception, there is such a method. By means of experi- 
mental processes, elsewhere explained, he can deter- 
mine these several conditions of success, and in adopt- 
ing them, he adopts the true and the only sure method. 
If he will take the time and make the effort necessary 
for this purpose, he may acquire from such a series of 
experiments that knowledge which no other man can 
impart to him, and which will enable him to obtain, 
beyond any question, a maximum yield of corn at a 
minimum cost per bushel. 

Let us now, for illustration, suppose the case of a 
farmer who has during the past year introduced into 
his corn crop a sufficient number and variety of such 
experiments to determine all the points that he needs 
to know for insuring the success of his next crop. He 
has ascertained what are, in his case and for his soil, 
the most certain and productive processes, and is 
therefore prepared to lay out his plan for the ensuing 
year. 

If you interrogate him on the subject, he speaks 
with confidence, and not with the tone of a man who 
is guessing, or groping in the dark. If you ask him 
how he is going to proceed, and his reason for each 



220 INDIAN COKN. 

process, his answers are not vague and hesitating, but 
prompt and definite. He has worked out his hest 
method witli hand and brain, and realizes that he is 
master of the situation. We will now suppose him 
to describe, as follows, his plan of operations for the 
year to come, as deduced from his experience in the 
year past : 

" In preparing the ground for my next year's corn 
crop," is his language, " I shall commence in the fall 
by ploughing to the depth of ten inches, following the 
surface-plough with the subsoiler as deeply as it can 
be made to go. That ten inches is the right depth 
for my soil I have clearly proved, and the utility of 
subsoiling was shown last season by its increasing the 
yield more than thirty per cent. 

" After the ground is thus ploughed, I shall apply 
a moderate top-dressing, fifty bushels to the acre, of lime 
and unleached ashes mixed in equal proportions. 
After having brought my land to this stage of prepa- 
ration in the fall, I shall then resign it for the winter 
season to those ever-useful and unfailing friends of 
the husbandman, the frost and rain, the storm, the 
sunshine, and the brooding snow. While the farmer 
wears away the hours of winter in recreation or re- 
pose, these friendly agents will do his work with tire- 
less industry, subduing and meliorating the soil with 
a magic efi'ect ' beyond the reach of art,' and their 
useful work will be all the better done, and the more 
effectual, in consequence of the aid previously ren- 
dered by the plough and the subsoiler. 

" In the spring, before planting, I shall again ap- 



HOW TO OBTAIN A LARGE YIELD OF COKN. 221 

ply tlie surface-plough one incli deeper than be- 
fore, to be followed again with the subsoiler. I 
shall next apply twenty loads to the acre of stable 
manure, previously sprinkled with brine. This appli- 
cation is to be immediately turned under with a shal- 
low plough, and thoroughly harrowed into the soil. 
My seed before planting will be steeped twenty-four 
hours in a weak solution of hen manure and chloride 
of lime. I shall then plant my corn, which is the 
King Philip variety, in drills three feet apart, with 
the grains eight inches asunder, covering the corn to 
the depth of two inches. 

" In the drills along with the grain is to be ap- 
plied a fertilizer, prepared by adding together two 
parts of leached ashes, three parts of the flour of bone, 
and five parts of well -rotted stable manure. After 
the corn is fairly up, I shall apply a moderate dressing 
of ashes, plaster, and lime. For the after-culture I 
shall use the horse-hoe and hand-cultivator often 
enough to keep the soil well aerated, and to prevent 
the growth of weeds. As the ground before planting 
will be thoroughly pulverized, the plough will not be 
required in the after-culture. 

" This is the course that has been clearly pointed 
out to me by my experience of the past year. A.II 
the details of this plan were indicated and jprmed to 
he the l)est hy the results of my experimental crop. I 
therefore accept the plan without hesitation. I do 
not know that it would be the best method for my 
neighbor, with a different soil, but I am sure that it 
is the best for me. In examining and comparing the 



222 INDIAN COBN. 

results of my experiments last fall, I found that in 
that portion of the field where all these conditions met 
together, the yield was equal to one hundred and sev- 
enty bushels per acre of grain, and the stover was at 
the rate of over five tons, surpassing, by nearly thirty 
per cent., any other results of the experimental crop. 

" IsTow, seeing that I shall adopt for the coming 
year, the precise method that gave this yield, apply- 
ing it also to the same soil, thus complying with all 
the conditions exacted by the laws of JS^ature, I con- 
sider that, with a propitious season, there is a fair 
probability of reaching the same amount again. If, 
however, I succeed in getting one hundred and fifty 
bushels, I shall be well paid and well satisfied. 

" I have ascertained, by experiments in feeding, 
that there is a way to convert my corn-stalks into 
milk, cheese, butter, and beef, so as to realize for them 
over ten dollars a ton ; and my corn, by the same 
best method of feeding, can be turned into x>ork or 
beef, so as to bring on an average over one dollar a 
bushel. I find, on computing the expense per acre of 
this method, that it amounts to fifty dollars, after de- 
ducting one-half the cost of the manure, and one- 
half the expense of subsoiling, both to be charged to 
future crops." 

This is supposed to be the language of a farmer 
applying the knowledge deduced from his experi- 
ments, to guide him in his future operations. There 
is in his statements nothing unreasonable, extrava- 
gant, or impossible. The case assumed not only illus- 
trates the general principle, but fairly represents the 



HOW TO OBTAIN A LARGE YIELD OF CORN. 223 

results that would probably be derived in a majority 
of instances from pursuing a system of best methods. 
But let us now compute the cost per bushel of this 
crop. The yield would probably be one hundred and 
fifty bushels per acre, as estimated. It might be 
more, it might be less. To meet varying possibilities, 
we will take several estimates, viz. : one hundred and 
twenty-five bushels, one hundred and fifty bushels, 
and one hundred and sixty-five bushels. The product 
of stalks for these yields would be from five tons up- 
ward. Taking the lowest rate, it would be five tons. 
The amount assumed as the expense of the crop, fifty 
dollars, is probably what it would be on an average. 
"We should then have the following result : 

Cost of crop $50 00 

Deduct 5 tons of stalks (at |6 per ton) 30 00 



$20 00 

This would make the cost of production, omitting 
fractions : 

For a yield of 125 bushels, equal to 16c. per bushel. 

For a yield of 150 bushels, = 13c. per bushel. 

For a yield of 165 bushels, = 12c. per bushel. 

There may be those who will differ in opinion as 
to this estimate. One will perhaps say that the quan- 
tity of manure is not sufficient to account for such a 
product ; another, that the planting is too close to 
give such a yield of grain, etc. But certainly a 
method, comprising half a score of different processes 
and conditions, cannot fairly be judged by any one 
of them considered separately. The yield is not the 



224 INDIAN CORN. 

result of any one element in the plan, but the joint 
product of the whole of them. Moreover, each part 
of the plan is adapted to all the other parts, and the 
whole together are adapted to a particular soil. The 
method and the soil are the counterparts of each 
other, and the highest capability of each is only de- 
veloped when they are brought together. 

The above method with a different soil might be 
entirely inadequate to such a yield — might even be a 
total failure ; and the soil, whatever its merit in this 
connection, might, under a different treatment, give a 
very uncertain result. But when the method and the 
soil are perfectly fitted to each other like dove-tailed 
joinery, or like the wheels and grooves of machinery, 
it would seem as if results larger than these might 
easily follow. 

When the conductor of an electrical machine is 
highly charged, you may apply a hundred different 
objects to it, and none of them is qualified to extract 
the fluid. But there are substances in nature pre- 
cisely fitted to produce this effect, and the moment 
you apply one of these the spark flies, and the fluid 
is given up. So when the farmer applies to his soil 
the method that is exactly suited and congenial, it 
surrenders its prolific virtue with an exuberance be- 
fore latent and unsuspected. 

Now there are some soils which, without any ma- 
nure whatever, are capable of yielding, and with deep 
and thorough culture have yielded, over one hundred 
bushels per acre. It seems, then, reasonable to infer 
that if such a method as the above is applied to the 



HOW TO OBTAIN A LAEGE YIELD OF COEN. 225 

soil to which it is precisely adapted, to the very soil, 
in fact, out of which it is created, it can scarcely pro- 
duce less than the amount assumed, and would very 
probably yield more. 

But there are many cases in which the result 
would be more striking than that above given. One 
farmer would find his soil so constituted that a less 
amount of tillage than the above would give an equal 
effect, or the same amount would give a larger effect. 
Another would find his land so prolific by nature that 
the amount of fertilization stated above would give a 
larger product than that assigned to it. A third 
would find that his soil lacked only one or two ele- 
ments of fertility, while containing all the rest in am- 
ple abundance, and that these absent elements could 
be added at less than half the expense of the above 
manm'e. In such cases as these, if all the other con- 
ditions of success were complied with, the cost of pro- 
duction would be found lower than in the above esti- 
mate, and the yield larger. 

Thus, by a system of unsparing investigation, each 
man perfects his own method, and acquires for him- 
self all the knowledge essential to the highest success. 
He may derive valuable aid from books and journals, 
from tables and formulas, from chemical analysis, and 
from all the countless instances of recorded experience. 
But in order to know precisely what is best suited to 
the peculiarities of his soil, climate, and other circum- 
stances, and to know this with the highest attainable 
certainty, his ultimate reliance must be on his own 
experience, and that experience he has the means of 
10* 



226 INDIAN COEN. 

enlarging to any extent, by accurate trials, that may 
be indefinitely multiplied and repeated. 

When the best faculties of the owner are thus 
brought in contact with his soil, a striking and mirac- 
ulous change is at once visible. Every fertilizer is 
made richer, every mode of treatment becomes a best 
method, and all the processes of vegetation are gal- 
vanized into new life by the seething battery of his 
ever-active brain. Any man can follow out a process 
mechanically when the rules are laid down. But the 
intelHgent, well-read farmer will improve upon the 
rules, and reach higher results. His success is a mat- 
ter of philosophical necessity. 

Let the cultivator of the soil, then, remember that 
there is in all this no grand secret nor profound mys- 
tery. The triumphs of agriculture are simply the 
results of patient thought and study. Tlie humblest 
farmer, whose scanty acres are hidden among the 
Alleghanies, may communicate to his rock-bound soil 
the prolific affluence of his thoughtful mind, till every 
acre shall teem with incredible tons of hay or with 
unprecedented bushels of corn. 

Every increased yield per acre should show, and 
if obtained on s(5tind principles will show a diminu- 
tion in the cost of production. Yiewed in this light, 
a large yield of corn becomes a subject of peculiar 
interest, and a general and material increase in tlie 
acreable product of the country would be equivalent 
to a reduction of the cost of living for our whole pop- 
ulation. At the same time, such an increase in the 
yield would possess another important significance. 



HOW TO OBTAIN A LARGE YIELD OF CORN. 227 

It would be recognized by the hard-working and ill- 
requited peasantry of foreign lands as a conspicuous 
inducement to come over to America, and establish 
themselves on the free and fertile acres of the bound- 
less West. 



THE LAEGEST YIELD ON KECOED. 

The largest amount of corn known to have been 
produced on a single acre is the yield of Dr. Parker, 
of South Carolina, which, as mentioned on a former 
page, was a fraction over two hundred bushels. Tliis 
quantity of grain does not by any means indicate the 
highest capability of an acre, but it stands at the head 
of all known products, and is therefore an event of 
historical importance. 

Yet this result does not seem to have arrested the 
attention due to its magnitude and its possible con- 
sequences ; nor has the man who produced it received 
the full measure of credit to which he is justly enti- 
tled. The highest yield ever obtained of a grain that 
forms the most important crop of the country, if not 
of the world, is a conspicuous fact in agriculture, 
that ought to win universal recognition, and confer 
upon its author a heritage of renown, if not some- 
thing more substantial. 

But the world is often slow to discern, and slower 
still to appreciate its true benefactors. Successful 
results gradually developed in the routine of daily 
life, or in the pursuit of a regular calling, however 



THE LAEGE8T YIELD ON KECOED. 229" 

■useful, solid, or lasting, seldom make an immediate 
or deep impression on society ; but individual success, 
of little or no merit, of no general interest, and no 
enduring consequence, if suddenly achieved, even 
without the aid of mental force or moral causes, 
whether resulting from accident, from impudence, or 
from crime, raises its author at once to celebrity, 
and fixes upon him the admiring gaze of the commu- 
nity. 

The man who, by a bold and reckless venture in 
the stock market, gambles successfully and achieves a 
sudden fortune, is surrounded, as if by magic, with an 
instant train of admirers. Yesterday he could scarcely 
claim a friend in the world. To-day his receptions are 
crowded with the wealth and fashion of the metropo- 
lis ; he is the centre of observation, and his name is on 
a thousand lips. He has made a desperate stake, and 
luck was on his side. Though of the most ordinary 
capacity, the chances ruled in his favor, and the hom- 
age of society rewards his success. 

The horse that succeeds in accomplishing his mile 
a few seconds sooner than any other, wins renown for 
himself and makes his master a hero. The event 
excites universal interest, and the press teems with 
eulogies, that are shared in due proportion between 
the steed and his owner. The latter, by the fortunate 
possession of a remarkable animal, is raised to promi- 
nence in society, and the suffrage of the community 
makes him a celebrity whose praise is on every 
tongue. 

The pugilist who, by dint of muscle and power of 



230 INDIAN COEN. 

endurance, succeeds in vanquishing liis antagonist in 
the ring, punishing him within an inch of his life, 
and pounding his features into a condition equally 
frightful and disgusting, is triumphantly escorted from 
the arena by an applauding multitude, and journals of 
nearly every rank emulate each other in relating the 
exploit and lauding the hero, whose fame goes abroad 
on every wind of heaven, till it spans the whole coun- 
try. Such is the reward of the human brute who, 
by a fortuitous endowment of physical strength, has 
been able to bruise and batter his unpitied victim to 
the verge of annihilation. 

But here is a man who, quietly and without pre- 
tension, has achieved a higher result in the produc- 
tion of food for the human family than any other man 
has ever reached, who has put on record his two hun- 
dred bushels of corn per acre, as a standing protest 
against the low average yield of the country, thereby 
making himself the true champion of the cornfield 
and the genuine hero of productive industry ; yet the 
event has attracted but little attention, and his name 
is scarcely heard or known beyond his own immediate 
circle. Such is the equity of public opinion, and such 
the civilization of the nineteenth century ! 

But though Dr. Parker, by his immense and un- 
exampled yield of this grain, has to that extent, and 
up to the present time, risen above all competition, 
placing himself, in one sense, at the head of the four 
million corn-growers of the country, and though his 
yield, viewed in contrast with the average ratio of 
production, appears truly prodigious, he has by no 



THE LARGEST YIELD ON EECOED. 231 

means reached the ultima thule of possible success, 
nor demonstrated the yet undeveloped capacity of 
corn. There is reason to believe, both on theoretical 
grounds and from actual though limited trials, that 
the two hundred bushels of Dr. Parker are destined 
to be materially surpassed, and probably at an early 
day. 

It detracts nothing, however, from the credit of 
his achievement to know that larger products, on a 
small scale, have already been obtained. Experi- 
mental results, though of limited extent, point clearly 
to other and still higher yields. "While it is true 
enough that such results may not indicate, with cer- 
tainty, the product of an acre, yet they are too signifi- 
cant to be lightly regarded. The amount actually 
obtained from a square rod, however large or incredi- 
ble it may appear, is prophetic of a similar product 
for entire fields. 

Natural laws can be examined and tested quite as 
accurately and certainly on a small area of ground as 
on one of larger extent. The man who obtains forty- 
four quarts of grain from a square rod renders it prob- 
able that either he or others, stimulated by his exam- 
ple, will get two hundred and twenty bushels from 
an acre. The latter may indeed be more difficult to 
efi'ect, yet in due time it will be accomplished. And 
if from an area of half a rod the persevering experi- 
menter succeeds in getting twenty-four quarts of 
shelled corn, he may fairly claim that he has estab- 
lished, not indeed the fact, but the undoubted possi- 
bihty of two hundred and forty bushels per acre. He 



232 INDIAN CORN. 

has shown that Nature has erected no inexorable bar- 
rier in the way of such a yield, and that therefore 
how soon it will be reached must depend upon the 
skill and ingenuity and perseverance of man. 

From these and like considerations it is rendered 
more than probable that some of our thoughtful and 
progressive cultivators will yet reach a product suf- 
ficiently in advance of any hitherto recorded to mark 
an epoch in corn husbandry. 

Whoever the farmer may be that shall first obtain 
such a yield, if he shall reach it by a method so sound 
and systematic as to repeat its results, and at the same 
time reduce the cost of production in a reasonable pro- 
portion, he will announce to the world an era of 
cheaper living, and will deserve to be ranked with the 
benefactors of mankind. He will increase the money 
value of every acre of land in the country, and aug- 
ment the swelling tide of immigration by sending 
across the Atlantic a new and louder note of invita- 
tion that will fall like pleasant music on the ears of 
toiling millions, kindling in their minds bright visions 
of future comfort and plenty in the land of Washing- 
ton and Lincoln. 



USES OF COEK 

There is no plant or vegetable cultivated by man 
that is capable of being applied to so many purposes 
of utility as Indian corn. A slight glance at its many 
and diversified uses is sufficient to show how exten- 
sively and intimately it is interwoven with the inter- 
ests of the human family. 

The grain both green and ripe, the stalks and 
leaves in the successive stages of their growth and 
maturity, the husks that envelop the ear, and the cob 
that supports the grain, are all adapted to economical 
purposes, and fitted, in a variety of ways, to subserve 
the wants of man. 

1. CORN AS AN ARTICLE OF HUMAN FOOD, 

The manifold and ingenious preparations of this 
grain intended for the table, comprise a numerous 
catalogue of dishes, all difiering from each other, yet 
each possessing its points of merit and its class of ad- 
mirers. 

In the Gkeen State. — In that stage of its growth 
when the ears and kernels are fully developed, but not 



234 ENDIAX CORN. 

yet glazed and hardened, the flavor of corn attains its 
highest perfection. The ears of the sweet varieties, 
while yet green, succnlent, and juicy, are universally 
esteemed a luxury, whether boiled or roasted ; and the 
grains, when shaved or grated from the cob, are skil- 
fully converted into a diversity of fritters, cakes, pud- 
dings, pies, and other numerous preparations. Some 
kinds of green corn are thought by many to resemble 
and rival, when rightly prepared, the flavor of the 
oyster, and are consequently highly popular with a 
large class of consumers. 

This increasing fondness and demand for the 
favorite kinds of sweet corn have caused them to be, 
within the last few years, very extensively preserved 
by various processes, either of drying, pickling, or 
canning, which is now so successfully done that the 
flavor of the green state is retained, and proves highly 
acceptable on the table at a later period of the year. 

Judging from the remarkable and continually in- 
creasing demand for some of the leading varieties of 
green corn during the season of its growth, and the in- 
creasing quantities annually put up for winter, it would 
seem as if the general fondness for it amounted to a 
passion. The immense sujjplies poured into our large 
cities during the summer are almost incredible, and 
the process of canning it bids fair to grow up into an 
extensive branch of business. When it is considered 
that, in addition to the vast amount brought into 
market, nearly every farmer raises a supply for home 
consumption, it will be seen that the crop of sweet 
corn, even by itself considered, forms, both as to 



USES OF CORN. 235 

amount and value, an important item in the catalogue 
of farming products. 

In the Ripe State. — But still more variously and 
extensively in its ripened state, does the grain of this 
cereal meet the requirements of daily use. In the 
several forms of hulled corn, popped corn, hominy, 
samp, Indian meal, corn-starch, and maizena, and in 
the many simple, healthful, and economical prepara- 
tions by which these are rendered acceptable to almost 
every variety of taste, the corn crop of our country is 
daily contributing, in large and liberal measure, to 
feed its population. 

The public interest in this subject has been from 
time to time awakened and stimulated by several 
agricultural journals, and especially by Mr. Judd, in 
the American Agriculturist for January, 1862. The 
following extract from an article in that number has 
an historical interest, and is creditable to the enterprise 
of the proprietor, while it also presents in a favorable 
light the usefulness of his journal : 

" In ^November last we stated that, taking into 
account the current prices of corn, wheat, and pota- 
toes, in different parts of the country. West as well as 
East, and estimating the relative proportion of health- 
ful nutriment furnished by a bushel of each, it seemed 
evident that a similar amount of nourishment would 
be obtained from — 

40 cents expended in purchasing Coen, 
100 cents expended in purchasing Wheat, 
160 cents expended in purchasing Potatoes ; 

and that, with the present large crop of Indian corn, 



236 INDIAN CORN. 

and the great foreign demand for wheat, it was espe- 
cially important to use more corn for food, and save 
our wheat to sell. In order to call out information 
upon the best methods of cooking Indian corn meal, 
we proposed, in the December Agriculturist, to have 
an exliibition of corn bread and corn cake, at our office, 
on December 14th. Premiums of ten dollars, five 
dollars, and two dollars were offered for the best, 
second best, and third best loaves of bread, consist- 
ing mainly of corn meal ; also an extra premium of 
four dollars for the best loaf of cake of any kind in 
which corn meal should be the chief ingredient. 

"^ Special Cake Premium. — As the extra premium 
of four dollars for corn cake was limited somewhat 
by the cost., we afterwards decided to add to our pub- 
lished premiums a special premium of two dollars, to 
be awarded to the hest corn cake of any kind, without 
regard to cost. The main requisites for the bread 
were to be : cheapness, fair quality, and adaptabihty 
to general family use, eaten cold as well as hot, and 
when from one to three days old. Full directions for 
making were to accompany each loaf. The entries 
reached over two hundred (two hundred and nineteen). 
Several entries being for duplicated loaves, the entire 
number of specimens reached some two hundred and 
fifty ! As will be seen below, these came from the 
distant West, from the Middle States, as far South as 
Maryland, and from the ISTortli and East. A space of 
seventy four feet of wide table-room was closely filled 
with a most imposing display of loaves of all sizes, 
from nearly half a bushel down to patty-pan com- 



USES OF COKN. 237 

meal biscuits, and small corn-meal crackers — and not 
bad crackers either. There were pure corn-meal 
loaves, and loaves of ' rje and Indian ; ' loaves one 
part wheat or rye flour with three parts corn meal, 
and loaves apprentlj half meal and half flour, with 
loaves of every intermediate combination. There 
were pumpkin loaves, corn-meal dodgers, corn-meal 
pound cake, corn-meal pone, corn-meal crullers, corn- 
meal 'nut-cakes,' corn-meal baked puddings, and corn- 
meal whatnots. There were round loaves, square 
loaves, high loaves, and flat loaves — in short, loaves 
of every conceivable form and shape, for of the two 
hundred and fifty-odd specimens scarcely two were 
alike in form and mode of making. The sight was 
one to gladden not only the hungry, but to cheer the 
heart of every patriot, when he remembers that corn 
is our native cereal, that it grows everywhere and in 
abundance, that it is as yet untouched by any disease, 
that it is healthful and nourishing, and that to-day 
one with cash can buy, from ready sellers at the West, 
more bushels of corn at fifteen cents a bushel than 
there are bushels of wheat now on the continent. The 
exhibition showed at a glance the great variety of 
palatable forms in which corn meal can be worked up. 
Under or by the side of each specimen were placed 
the directions for making it. The large concourse of 
visitors, numbering by thousands, were both surprised 
and gratified, and many went away resolved to hence- 
forth largely increase their family purchases and use 
of corn meal." 

The peculiar fitness of corn for human food, and 



238 INDIAJSr CORN. 

its adaptation to tlie varied wants of tlie system, have 
been well stated in the following extract from an arti- 
cle found in several contemporary journals, though 
we are not certain of its original source : 

" During excessive fatigue in low temperature, 
wheat flour fails to sustain the system. This is owing 
to a deficiency in the elements necessary to supply 
animal heat ; and the strong desire for oleaginous sub- 
stances, under these circumstances, has led to the 
belief that animal food is necessary to the human sup- 
port. But late scientific experiments have led to 
better acquaintance with the habits of the North 
American Indians, and show that vegetable oil answers 
the same purpose as animal food ; that one pound of 
parched Indian corn, or an equal quantity of corn 
meal, made into bread, is more than equivalent to 
two pounds of fat meat. 

" Meal from Indian corn contains more than four 
times as much oleaginous matter as wheat flour ; more 
starch, and is consequently capable of producing more 
sugar, though less gluten ; in other important com- 
pounds it contains nearly as much nitrogenous mate- 
rial. The combination of alimentary compounds in 
Indian corn renders it alone the mixed diet capable 
of sustaining man under the more extraordinary cir- 
cumstances. In it there is a natural coalescence of 
elementary principles which constitute the basis of 
organic life, that exists in no other vegetable produc- 
tion. In ultimate composition, in nutritious proper- 
ties, in digestibility, and in its adaptation to the various 
necessities of animal life in the different climates of 



USES OF CORN. 239 

the earth, corn meal is capable of supplying more of 
the absolute want of the adult human system than 
any other single substance." 

In addition to the amount of corn consumed in the 
various forms and modes of preparing it, both in the 
green and ripe state as above described, there are also 
other forms, not perhaps so generally considered, in 
which it is extensively, though unconsciously, con- 
sumed by every class of the people, not only of this, 
but of other countries. The beef, butter, and cheese, 
the pork and lard, the poultry and mutton, which 
make up so large a share of the products of our agri- 
culture, are each composed, in a larger or less degree, 
of this all-pervading cereal. 

When the citizen of a foreign country sits down 
to a dinner of American beef or pork, the dish before 
him is the contribution of an American cornfield, 
representing, perhaps, the golden Sioux of ISTew Eng- 
land, or the stately Gourd-seed of Illinois. The 
wealthy resident of the metropolis, whose fastidious 
palate has not, perhaps, been educated up to the latest 
improvement in corn bread, dilates with complacency 
over his favorite spare-rib, or tender-loin, without re- 
flecting that the perfection of its flavor is derived from 
Indian corn. 

There are probably few of the consumers of beef, 
pork, and mutton, who consider the influence exerted 
by the maize crop on these staples, and fewer still who 
are fully aware how much higher they would be in 
price, as well as inferior in quality, if that crop were 



240 INDIAN COKN. 

suddenly annihilated, or even if it were seriously 
damaged for a single season. 



2. CORN AS FOOD FOR DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 

Every description of live stock that is usually kept 
upon the farm may be fed with economy and advan- 
tage upon the grain or the stover of maize, or upon 
both combined, provided these are given with judg- 
ment, and not to the exclusion of other feed. For 
poultry and swine, the grain itself is well adapted. All 
other kinds of stock will eat with avidity both the 
stalk and the grain, and will thrive upon them, if they 
are properly prepared and blended in suitable pro- 
portions with other provender. 

Corn meal is sometimes fed to cattle without due 
regard to regularity, and in quantities inconsiderate 
and unreasonable. The effect of such feeding is not 
only to injure the animal, but to bring undeserved 
odium upon the grain. Indian meal is a concentrated 
feed, and like guano among fertilizers, depends for 
its highest usefulness and value upon being judiciously 
blended with the right material, and in the right pro- 
portions. 

It is a good general rule in feeding, and equally 
applicable to all kinds of grain, as well as to roots and 
hay, to confine no class of animals to any one or two 
articles of food. Yariety is conducive to health, and 
the more carefully the husbandman acts upon this 
principle, the better his stock will thi*ive. 



USES OF COEN. 241 

FoK Poultry. — In feeding fowls and most kinds 
of poultry the rice corn and other small varieties are 
found to be well adapted and are now generally pre- 
ferred. Corn-meal and boiled potatoes, mixed to- 
gether with hot water, are said to be an excellent 
preparation for feeding to poultry through the winter. 
To this some add a proportion of oat-meal, and com- 
mend the combination very highly, as promotive of 
health, and increasing the product of eggs. "When 
fowls are to be fattened for the table, they should be 
shut up for several weeks and fed, four or five times 
a day, with corn meal and ground barley or oats, 
mixed together in the proportion of two to one, with 
warm water and lard. For fattening turkeys, there is 
no feed like Indian meal, and few if any modes of using 
corn with more profit. His especial weakness, says a 
writer in the Agriculturist, is Indian corn, and his 
eye twinkles with delight at the sight of this golden 
grain. His flesh tells the story of his keeping. For 
the last six weeks of his life he should be plied with 
corn as the standard diet. There is no cheating the 
consumer. A lean bird is not the thing for forty 
cents a pound. Be honest, give him a plump corn- 
fed fowl, and sleep with a thriving pocket and a 
good conscience, though the crib grows lean. 

For Horses, — Indian corn, in connection with 
other feed, is well adapted, and if not given in exces- 
sive proportion, is attended with advantage to the 
animal, as well as profit to the owner. In the livery 
stables of large towns, and among stage proprietors, 
the addition of corn meal to the daily feed of the 
11 



242 mDiAiii coEN. 

horse is quite generally practised. The proportions 
usually given are about sixteen to twenty pounds of 
ground corn and oats daily, with eight or ten pounds 
of chaffed hay, the ratio of corn to oats being gener- 
ally about two to one, tliough this depends very 
much on the relative prices of these grains. Among 
farmers this practice may be, and often is, modified 
with advantage, the chaffed stover of corn being 
more or less blended with the hay, or substituted for it. 

Some men are accustomed to regard oats as the 
peculiar and essential feed of the horse, without 
which he can scarcely exist, and with which he needs 
little besides. It is undoubtedly true, that this grain 
is well suited, and congenial to the nature of the 
horse, and no other is perhaps more so. But this 
will scarcely justify the practice of making oats his 
exclusive feed, nor of limiting his diet to oats and hay. 
According to principles of physiology, as well as on 
evidence derived from experience, the horse, like every 
other animal, requires variety in his food, and cannot 
without it maintain a condition of perfect health and 
vigor. 

Value of Coen for Cattle. — In the management 
and feeding of neat cattle, there are several classes of 
them to be considered ; namely, young stock, milch 
cows, working cattle, and beeves. For each of these, 
Indian corn is found useful, and if the object is to 
produce the highest degree of thrift in the animal at 
the least expense to the owner, and to support the 
largest amount of stock on a given extent of ground, 
then Indian corn becomes not only useful, but indis- 



USES OF CORN. 243 

pensable. Every part of the plant, including the 
leaf, stalk, husk, and cob, as well as the grain, may be 
turned to an advantageous account. 

For young stock, and for cows, when milk rather 
than butter is the object, the stover alone, if well 
cured, finely chafied, and soaked a few hours before 
feeding, is sufficient to keep them in good condition ; 
though for the purpose of variety, it is usual and 
profitable to connect with this a proportion of cut 
hay, or pulped roots, or both. But for working cat- 
tle, for cows when butter or cheese is the object, and 
for beef-cattle at all times, the grain is essential to the 
best results, and should be combined with other kinds 
of feed in larger or less proportions, according to cir- 
cumstances. 

For this purpose, there is perhaps no better prep- 
aration of corn-fodder than that already described 
on a previous page, namely, the addition of corn and 
cob meal to the stover finely chaifed. This combina- 
tion includes the entire product of the corn, and 
when thoroughly scalded or steamed before using, 
whether given for the purpose of butter or beef, or 
for the general improvement and vigor of the animal, 
is found to be exceedingly well adapted to the intend- 
ed object. 

It was shown, in a former chapter, that when the 
farmer raises one hundred bushels of corn per acre, 
the total product of the crop, in the form of this fodder, 
is fifteen thousand pounds, and is equal, in nutritive 
value, to twenty thousand pounds of hay. 

Now it has been found in practice, that cattle re- 



244 INDIAN COKN. 

quire, for their daily food, from two to three per cent. 
of tlieir weight in hay, or its equivalent. According 
to Prof. Johnston : 

An ox at rest requires 2 per cent, of its live weight. 
" " at work " 2-J " " " " " " 
A cow in milk " 3 " " " " " " 

If, then, we take the average weight of cows at 
seven hundred pounds, it will appear that the above 
product of one acre of corn would be more than suffi- 
cient to winter six of them, assuming the average 
winter for the United States to be one hundred and 
fifty days. Or, taking cattle of the various classes, at 
an average consumption of food equal to two and one- 
half per cent, of their weight, then the above product 
of one acre of corn would support seven during the 
winter, and leave a balance of the crop on hand. 

Value of Corn foe Swine.— In feeding hogs, the 
stover of corn is not, to any considerable extent, avail- 
able, and the grain is usually given in larger proportion, 
and more exclusively than to cattle. But here, as in 
other cases, the principle of variety is not to be 
neglected. In diversifying the feed of this animal, 
there need be no difficulty. His omnivorous pro- 
pensities are so strongly developed as to embrace 
nearly every kind of food that comes within his reach. 
"Whatever is eaten by other domestic animals is seldom 
rejected by the hog, while many substances refused 
by them are eagerly appropriated by his indiscriminate 
voracity. 

He is, therefore, easily kept, and with prudent 



USES OF COEN. 24:5 

management may be made very profitable. This is 
especially the case where pigs are kept in small num- 
bers. When the proportion of them to other stock is 
rightly balanced, so as to make them a convenient 
appendage to the barnyard, to the kitchen, and to 
the dairy, the cost of maintaining them is so trifling 
as scarcely to be felt. 

When they are increased beyond this proportion, 
though the cost of keeping the additional number is 
somewhat greater, yet with good management the 
comparative expense may be made very moderate. 
The incidental and economical sources of food for 
swine on a well-managed farm are so many and various 
that very little positive expense is incurred, except for 
the grain that is superadded to the other feed in the 
process of fattening. 

But here is where many farmers make a serious 
mistake. They postpone the use of grain until a late 
period, and then commence feeding it in excessive 
quantities, that are often suddenly increased with but 
little regularity and little or no system. 

With such treatment, neither corn nor any other 
grain or feed can exert its proper and legitimate effect. 
Experience has proved that the most certain mode of 
feeding hogs, with profit, is to commence the use of 
grain or meal with the young pig. It matters not 
how young the pig may be, provided the meal is given 
with due care and judgment, in small quantities, well 
scalded or cooked, and fed in connection with milk 
and other waste from the dairy and kitchen. 

If this practice is continued with a very gradual 



246 INDIAN COEN. 

increase in the amount of Indian meal until the time 
arrives for full feeding, the farmer will find his hog so 
far advanced in size and flesh that a much smaller 
quantity of grain will be required to finish oif with, 
than would be needed by the other method. 

He will thus have a healthier animal, better pork, 
and more of it, with a less total consumption of corn^ 
than he could obtain by the mistaken system which 
vainly attempts to compensate for the neglect of the 
first six months by excessive feeding during the last 
two. 

This principle is equally true and sound in refer- 
ence to other animals, and a similar economy of grain 
and increase of flesh will be found to result from it. 

CoKN FOB Sheep. — In the feeding of sheep both 
the stalk and the grain of maize may be used with 
advantage, especially when blended or alternated 
with other kinds of feed. There is, perhaps, no ani- 
mal that thrives better on a variety of food, and none 
that needs more careful attention, both in the feeding 
and in the general management. 

It is a very usual practice with sheep farmers to 
mix Indian corn with oats or barley, giving to each 
animal a pint per day, in addition to other feed. The 
latter grains are doubtless good, and rank probably 
next to corn in value. But when the object is to 
fatten the animal there is no feed equal to Indian 
meal and oil meal, given in equal quantities, and not 
less than one pound per head daily. 

According to Mr. John Johnston, of Western New 
York, a most excellent authority, there is no animal 






USES OF CORN. 247 

that will take on fat so rapidly as sheep, if they are 
in good condition and rightly fed. He estimates the 
relative values of oil meal and corn in the ratio of 
fifty pounds of the former to sixty pounds of the 
latter, in feeding sheep, and probably the same com- 
parative value would hold true for other animals. 

It has been found by wool-growers that the ten- 
dency of feeding corn is to increase the weight of the 
fleece. One writer reports, as the result of some ex- 
periments on this subject, an average increase of half 
a pound per fleece, produced by feeding corn during 
the winter, before shearing. Some others have found 
a greater increase than this. 

Sheep are very fond of corn-fodder when it is per- 
fectly sound, and experience has proved it to be eco- 
nomical, and well adapted to their wants, and all the 
more so if finely chafifed. The amount of food con- 
sumed by sheep, as compared with that of cattle, has 
been computed at about one-eighth. That is to say, 
the food required by one ox would be sufiicient, on 
an average, for eight sheep. Therefore, according to 
the estimate before made for cattle, it will be seen 
that the total product of one acre of corn, including 
grain, cob, and stalk, on a yield of one hundred 
bushels, would be sufficient to winter more than fifty 
sheep. 

It is not, however, intended by this statement to 
recommend the exclusive use of the above provender, 
nor to prescribe for every case one invariable propor- 
tion of the difierent parts in combining them. Though 
for some purposes the combination of the grain, cob, 



248 ESTDIAN CORN. 

and stalk, in the proportion of their yield as above 
given, is no doubt the best form in which they can be 
used, yet, in other cases, a larger or less relative quan- 
tity of the grain would be found expedient. These 
are points that the farmer can best determine for him- 
self by comparative trials. The estimate is made for 
the purpose of illustrating the economical advantages 
of corn, and the feeding power of one acre of it. 



COST OF BEEF MADE FEOM COKN". 

The neat cattle in the United States, in 1860, in- 
cluding all kinds, amounted to over twenty-five mill- 
ions. In 1 865 the beef consumed in New York city alone, 
added to the quantity exported from it, made a total 
of over one hundred and fifty million pounds. What 
the entire consumption and export of beef for the 
whole country amounts to, we have no means of de- 
termining ; but from the amount required by a single 
city, it is easy to see that the aggregate demand is 
immense, and that, to supply this demand, the pro- 
duction of beef by American farmers has grown into 
a business of vast proportions. 

As Indian corn is a large element in the making 
of beef, the best method of feeding it becomes, of 
course, an important question, and interests alike the 
producer and consumer. It interests the former by 
determining, to a certain extent, the amount of profit 
on his corn and other provender, and the latter be- 
cause it involves the cost, and therefore affects the 
price, of an article of daily consumption. 

The experience of farmers in regard to the profit 
11* 



260 INDIAN COEN. 

of making beef is widely various, but, on the whole, 
unfavorable. One man finds the business lucrative, 
wliile another sinks money in it. The difference 
arises in part, no donbt, from the locality, the breed 
of the animal, and other circumstances ; but it also 
depends very much on the method of feeding, and on 
the man. 

If a few invariably succeed, or even generally suc- 
ceed, although a larger number may fail, it proves 
that there is a right method that brings success, and 
that consequently success ought to be the rule, and 
failure the exception. 'No man who proceeds blindly 
in this business can reasonably expect to make it prof- 
itable. It is as true here as in every other branch of 
husbandry, that intelligence is essential to prosperity. 

In order to convert corn, or any other feed, into 
beef to the best advantage, it is important to know, 
as nearly as possible, how many pounds of the former 
it requires, on an average, to make a pound of the 
latter. This does not appear to have been, as yet, 
very precisely determined, in regard to corn ; there 
are, however, some data from which a tolerably accu- 
rate conclusion may be derived. 

There is also another principle, now beginning to 
be understood among farmers, that should here be 
kept steadily in view. It is found that a certain 
amount of food is consumed by every animal before 
the process of fattening commences. Wlien a steer is 
brought up to the point where this process begins, it 
requires a definite quantity of provender to keep him 
in that condition. If fed beyond that point, the excess 



COST OF MAKING BEEF FKOM CORN. 351 

of food contributes to the formation of fat. Tims in 
regard to beef, as we before found in the case of corn, 
the profit lies in the last additions made to the cost of 
production.* 

Here, then, arises the twofold question, What is the 
amount of provender that will keep an animal station- 
ary ? and what amount of corn or other feed, in addi- 
tion to this, is required for each pound of fat that is 
formed ? 

Now we have abeady seen that neat cattle con- 
sume, on an average, two and a half per cent, daily 
of their weight in hay, or its equivalent. If they re- 
ceive less than this, they fall away ; if more than this, 
they increase. If, then, a steer weighing seven hun- 
dred pounds is fed one hundred and twenty pounds 
of hay, or chaifed stalks, per week, or any other food 
equivalent to these, he will hold his condition. If, in 
addition to this, he receives fifty-six pounds of corn 
per week, he will increase in weight. In order to 
know definitely what the gain would be in this case, 
let us endeavor to determine the efiective value of 
corn in the production of beef. 

Mr. G. H. Chase, of Cayuga County, IS^, T., found 
by experiment, as reported in the Country Gentleman, 
that twenty-eight quarts of ground barley per week 
gave an average increase of eighteen pounds of flesh ; 
but ground barley contains less than one-fourth the 
percentage of fatty matter that belongs to Indian 

* Tliis principle is equally true in all cases of feeding, whethei- the 
object is beef, butter, cheese, pork, or mutton. 



252 INDIAN CORN. 

com, and the latter has been proved by trial to be 
more fattening than any other grain. It appears, 
from the experiment of Mr. Chase, that less than 
three pounds of barley gave one pound of beef. This, 
however, is probably better than an average result. 

In the Journal of the Bath and West of England 
Agricultural Society a table is given, in which six 
pounds of barley are stated to be equal to the produc- 
tion of one pound of beef. 

In some experiments on pig-feeding, by Mr. Lawes, 
of England, the comparative fattening effects of barley 
and corn were found to be very nearly in the ratio of 
six to five ; making five pounds of corn equal to six 
pounds of barley. Therefore, according to the table 
above referred to, five pounds of corn would be equal 
in feeding effect to one pound of beef. 

In the Rural Annual for 1865, the editor, com- 
menting on some experiments of Lawes and Gilbert, 
comes to the conclusion that " a bullock weighing 
eight hundred pounds would consume forty-three 
pounds of corn and ninety pounds of hay per week, 
and increase eight pounds." 

It is evident that this rate of feeding is entirely 
too low for the weight of the animal. It shows a fair 
result for the corn, but too small a gain of flesh to 
give the highest profit. It would take all of the 
above hay, and about half of the corn, to keep the ox 
stationary through the week, and the balance of the 
corn, Slay twenty-four pounds, would produce the in- 
ci'eased weight. 

But the writer afterwards varies this statement, 



COST OF MAKING BEEF FKOM CORN. 253 

and supposes one bushel of corn and one hundred 
pounds of liay to produce ten pounds of beef in a 
week. But still the rate of feeding is too low for the 
best result. In this case the ox would require the 
entire hay, and about twenty pounds of the corn, in 
order to hold his condition ; leaving forty pounds of 
the corn to account for the increased weight. In one 
of these instances the effect of the feeding shows that 
three pounds of corn produce a pound of beef, and in 
the other four pounds of com give the same result. 
In both cases, if more corn were given, it would in- 
crease, not only the gain of flesh, but the rate of profit 
on the animal. 

According to the principle stated by Mr. Lawes, 
and established by his experiments, it seems evident 
that, with a good breed of cattle, from three to four 
pounds of corn, in addition to the above j)roportion 
of other provender, will give a pound of beef. 

There are those who consider the effective value 
of corn even higher than this, while others place it 
quite as much below these figures. On the whole, 
we think it may safely be assumed, that, after the 
animal has received the amount of food necessary 
to sustain it, every four pounds of corn in addition 
will give one pound of beef, provided the meal is 
properly fed, by being well mixed with the other 
provender, and thoroughly soaked or steamed. 

Kow, taking the case of the steer weighing seven 
hundred pounds, let us see what the beef would cost 
per pound by this estimate. The amount of feed per 
week was assumed to be one hundred and twenty 



254 INDIAN CORN. 

pounds of chaffed stalks, to keep up his condition, 
and fifty-six pounds of corn to fatten him. We now 
find that fifty-six pounds of corn would give an in- 
crease of weight to the animal equal to fourteen 
pounds. If we suppose the farmer to charge his 
corn at one dollar per bushel, and his stalks at six 
dollars per ton, the account would stand thus : 

56 lbs. of corn $1 00 

120 " " stalks 32 

$1 32 
Deduct value of manure 60* 

72 

The farmer here gets fourteen pounds of beef at a 
cost of seventy-two cents, which is equal to five and 
one-seventh cents per pound, while the profit on his 
corn and stover is, or ought to be, at the above prices, 
over one hundred per cent. 

But to illustrate the principle above referred to, 
and to show the effect of higher feeding upon the rate 
of profit, if we supjDose the quantity of food increased 
in the above instance, in the right proportions, it will 
be found that every additional pound of beef, made 
by such increasing in the amount of feed, will cost 
but four cents ; and if the corn and stover were 
charged at the cost of production, instead of at the 
figures above given, then the cost of the beef thus 
added would be about two cents per pound, 

* Some farmers consider the manure of a well-fed steer equivalent 
to $1.00 per week. 



COST OF MAKmG BEEF FKOM CORN. 255 

This case of feeding, which is given as an illustra- 
tion merely, would not be strictly followed in prac- 
tice, as a greater variety of food would be better for 
the animal, and would not materially alter the result. 
Pulped roots may always be used with advantage in 
connection with corn-meal and stalks, if the propor- 
tion is properly regulated. 

It will be seen that if the farmer, in this instance, 
sells his beef at cost, he gets one dollar per bushel for 
his corn, and six dollars per ton for his stalks, out of 
which, however, is to be deducted the cost of grind- 
ing the grain and chaffing the stalks. 

Bat the price of beef, in the ISTew York market, 
has not been as low as five cents, on a yearly average, 
for a long time. The price for the last year (1865) 
averaged about eleven cents, and for the last six years 
about seven cents per pound, for the live weight. 

If, then, he sells his beef at the average price of 
the last six years, he realizes for his corn one dollar 
and fifteen cents per bushel, and for his stalks eight 
dollars per ton ; while if he gets for his beef the 
average price of the last year, it pays him one dollar 
and sixty-one cents per bushel for his corn, and ten 
dollar per ton for his stalks. 

The following table indicates the price realized by 
the farmer for his corn, for different prices of beef, 
and also for different amounts of corn required in 
feeding, to produce a pound of beef. Fractions are 
here omitted, as the results in whole numbers are suf- 
ficiently accurate for general purposes : 



256 



INDIAN CORN. 



RATIO OF GOES 


PEIOE OF 
BEEF. 


PEIOE BEAT.TZED FOK COEN. 


TO BEEF. 










Grain per busbel. 


Stalks per ton. 




5 cts. 


$0 84 


$6 00 


Five lbs. of com 


7 " 


1 01 


7 00 


producing one lb. of 
beef. 


9 " 


1 18 


8 00 




11 " 


1 40 


8 00 




5 cts. 


$0 93 


$7 00 


Four lbs. producing 


7 " 


1 15 


8 00 


one lb. 


9 " 


1 43 


8 00 




11 " 


1 61 


10 00 



It is here apparent that if it takes five pounds of 
corn, in addition to the other feed, to produce a pound 
of beef, the latter, even at five cents a pound, pays 
eighty-four cents per bushel for the corn, and six dol- 
lars per ton for the stalks. JSTow, if the farmer's 
corn costs him thirty cents per bushel to produce it, 
which is about the average cost of production for the 
whole country, then it leaves him a margin of fifty- 
four cents per bushel, out of which he can pay for 
grinding the grain and chaffing the stalks, and a profit 
will still remain. 

But if he succeeds in raising his corn at a cost of 
twenty-five cents per bushel, and converting it into 
beef at the rate of four pounds for one, both of which 
are entirely possible, then at the average market price 
of beef for the last six years, he makes a profit on his 



COST OF MAKING BEEF FEOM CORN. 257 

grain of ninety cents per busliel, while the margin of 
profit on the stalks will pay for grinding the former 
and chaffing the latter. 

But there is another contingency in regard to 
beef which the farmer may avail himself of with 
decided advantage. The price of it varies with the 
condition of the animal. This is an important con- 
sideration, and too often overlooked. A very fat steer 
will bring a higher price per pound than a lean one, 
or than one even moderately fat. The excess of 
weight produced by continued high feeding is sup- 
posed to impart an extra value to the whole animal. 
The accession of fat produced by the last ten or 
twenty bushels of corn not only brings its own higher 
price, but, at the same time, raises the price of the 
entire carcass. 

This final increase in the fleshiness of the animal 
seems to convert the beef from an article of necessity 
into an article of luxury, and carries with it a corre- 
sponding change in the market value. Whether or 
not there is any sufficient reason for this distinction, is 
not for the farmer to inquire. It is not his province 
to determine what ought to he, but to shape his busi- 
ness according to what is. The feeder, therefore, who 
judiciously takes advantage of this well-known fact, 
may generally realize from two to three cents a pound 
more for his beef than the figures in the table. 

On the whole, then, it may fairly be assumed that 
the farmer who makes good fat heef may reasonably 
calculate on getting eight cents a pound for it, on a 
yearly average. In that case, if he converts his corn 



258 ESTDIAIT CORN. 

into beef even at the rate of five pounds for one, 
allowing his corn to cost thirty cents per bushel, and 
his stalks three dollars per ton, it will bring the cost 
of his beef to about four cents per pound, even with- 
out taking the manure into account, and the profit on 
his corn will be forty-three cents per bushel. 

But if he makes four pounds of corn (in addition 
to the other feed) produce a pound of beef, and counts 
liis manure at its true value, then he realizes a profit 
on his corn of ninety-five cents per bushel, and on the 
stover of five dollars and fifty cents per ton ; which 
is nearly the same thing as five dollars a ton for the 
stalks and one dollar a bushel for the corn. These 
figures, for an average profit, ought to be satisfactory. 
Some farmers have done better ; and every man who 
finds his profit falling much below this, has reason 
to suspect that there is something wrong either in his 
method of raising corn, or in his method of feeding it. 

There is probably no part of the farmer's occupa- 
tion that requires more careful and constant attention 
than the feeding of his stock, and none that depends 
so much for success upon the exercise of intelligence, 
good sense, and sound judgment. 

" Cattle feeding," as the Springfield Republican 
very justly remarks, " is a science of trade, to be 
studied and learned like any other. Qualities and 
quantities are not the only things requisite in the care 
of domestic animals. Regularity, cleanliness, com- 
fort, and quiet repose are elements of thrift, not to be 
lightly considered. In the application of these is 
shown the skill of the herdsman. One man will 



COST OF MAKING BEEF FKOM COKN. 259 

make the same amount of feed go further and accom- 
plish more than another. A great deal depends on 
knowing how. A herdsman does not become full 
fledged instantaneously. Among the first steps in 
progress are the consciousness of ignorance, and the 
desire to learn." 



COST OF POEK MADE FEOM COEK 

The grain that is usually and almost exclusively 
employed in this country for fattening pigs, is Indian 
corn. It is found to be more efficient and economical 
than any other, and imparts to the pork an unrivalled 
solidity and flavor. Other grains in smaller quanti- 
ties are sometimes mixed with this, and if the propor- 
tion is not too large may be employed to advantage. 

Corn that is fed to swine should invariably be 
ground, and the meal steamed or boiled before feed- 
ing. Its nutritive effect and fattening power are sur- 
prisingly increased by this treatment, and the prac- 
tice of the most successful feeders has proved its util- 
ity so clearly as to place it beyond any doubt. 

It is found that corn is more effective when fed to 
hogs than in the case of neat cattle, and produces a 
larger amount of pork than of beef for each bushel 
consumed. Successful farmers have not unfrequently 
obtained a pound of pork by feeding from two to 
three pounds of corn. The gain of flesh per day with 
good feeding will reach from one to three poimds, and 
has been known to reach three and a half pounds. It 



COST OF POEK MADE FEOM COEN. 261 

is almost incredible how cheaply pork may be pro- 
duced with a good hreed of hogs, if well fed and well 
managed. 

Hr. J. Sibley, of Wayne County, IST. Y., has re- 
ported to the Country Gentleman, that four hundred 
and twelve pounds of pork, made mostly from corn, 
cost him twelve dollars and ninety-three cents, which 
is a trifle over three cents per pound. If the value 
of the manure had been reckoned in this estimate, as 
it ought to be, the cost of the pork would have been 
between two and three cents per pound. 

Nathan G. Morgan, of Union Springs, IST. T., as 
stated in Tucker's Annual Register, considers the 
value of corn doubled by grinding the grain and scald- 
ing the meal, and finds that, at five cents per pound 
for pork, he gets one dollar per bushel for his corn. 

William Van Loom, in a communication to the 
Prairie Farmer, says that he has practised feeding 
boiled corn, and is satisfied that one bushel thus pre- 
pared is equal to two bushels fed raw. In one exper- 
iment he found that three pounds of cooked corn gave 
one pound of pork. 

Gates Henry, of Schuylkill County, Pa., has stated 
in a prize article to the Agriculturist, that by feeding 
his hogs fifteen to twenty bushels of corn each, he 
has usually made the weight from four hundred to five 
hundred pounds. He does not state that the whole 
of this weight was produced by the corn exclusively, 
yet it is evident that the corn was converted into pork 
at a handsome profit, bringing the cost of the latter 
to a low figure. 



262 INDIAN CORN. 

" A very successful manager," says the editor of 
the Country Gentleman^ " with whose treatment we 
are well acquainted, pours six parts of hot water on 
one part of ground Indian meal, and then allows it 
to stand twelve to eighteen hours, until the whole is 
swollen to a thick mass, when it is given to the ani- 
mals. He finds boiling water better than cold for 
this purpose, but the mixture undergoes little or no 
fermentation. So successful is his management, that 
in connection with the selection of good breeds, and 
regular feeding and cleanliness, he usually obtains one 
pound of pork from feeding three pounds of corn." 

Mr. J. "W". Zigler, of Indiana, according to a state- 
ment made by him in the Western Rural^ fed fifteen 
hogs with corn for forty-two days, during which time 
the average gain per hog was nearly three pounds per 
day, and the pork was at the rate of one pound for 
every three pounds of corn. The pork was sold in 
Chicago at ten and a half cents per pound, giving 
him a net profit of one hundred and forty dollars. 

Mr. Baldwin, an English breeder of some note, 
has used Indian corn, barley meal, and ground peas 
in fattening hogs, but gives the preference to the corn. 
He finds that two pounds of it will produce a pound 
of porh. This result is higher than usual, and is 
probably in part due to the breed of the animal. 

Though most of the above figm-es are better than 
the average experience of feeders, they might gener- 
ally be equalled, and some of them surpassed by a 
majority of farmers, if more careful attention were 
given to the subject. 



COST OF POEK MADE FROM CORN. 263 

It will be found, if the value of the manure is 
taken into the account, that when three pounds of 
corn produce one pound of pork, the latter, at six 
cents a pound, pays one dollar and twenty-eight cents 
per bushel for the corn. As the average price of 
pork, for the last six years, was over six cents per 
pound for the live weight, there seems to be no reason 
to believe that it will be below that figure for some 
years to come. 

For 1865 the yearly average for pork was over 
twelve cents per pound. At this price, the farmer 
who makes three pounds of corn equivalent to one of 
pork, gets two dollars and forty cents per bushel for 
his corn, which is certainly a rate of profit that in 
most kinds of business would be deemed very satis- 
factory. 

The following table gives the prices realized for 
corn at several different prices for pork, and for dif- 
ferent ratios of corn to pork in feeding. The manure 
is rated at six dollars and fifty cents for each ton of 
feed consumed, which is about the usual estimate, 
though less than its real value to the farmer who 
rightly uses it : 



264 



INDIAN COKN. 



EATIO OF OOEN TO 


Price of Dork. 


Price realized for corn per 


POEK. 






busliel. 




5 


cts. 


$0 86 


rour pounds producing one 


6 


(; 


1 00 


pound. 


r 


u 


1 14 




8 


u 


1 28 




5 


cts. 


$1 09 


Three pounds producing one 


6 


It 


1 28 


pound. 


r 


u 


1 47 




8 


u 


1 65 




5 


cts. 


$1 56 


Two pounds producing one 


6 


(( 


1 84 


pound. 


Y 


u 


2 12 




8 


u 


2 40 



As there is, at the present time, an unusual scar- 
city of hogs in the United States, there is every reason 
to believe that the range of prices for pork will rule 
higher, for some time to come, than the average of 
the last six years. 

The farmer, therefore, who converts three pounds 
of corn into one pound of pork, allowing the corn to 
stand him in thirty cents per bushel, which is more 
than it ought to, will bring the cost of his pork at less 
than two cents per pound, with a prospect of realizing 
not less than seven cents, which will make the profit 



COST OF PORK MADE FROM COEN. 265 

on his corn one dollar per bushel, without counting 
the manure. 

The amount of pork required to meet the demand 
for consumption and export, may he partly judged 
from the fact, that the total receipt of hogs in ISTew 
York city for the last year was about six hundred 
thousand, and the amount exported from the same city 
was nearly one hundred and twenty thousand barrels. 
As the demand is likely to increase more rapidly than 
the supply, farmers will probably find it their interest 
to augment their stock of hogs, and turn them to the 
best account by feeding them up to a heavier weight 
than usual, before sending them to market. 

12 



COST OF MUTTON MADE FEOM COEK 

According to the latest opinions and experience 
of sheep -farmers and others, it seems to be generally 
concluded, that corn is quite as well adapted for 
making mutton, as for beef or pork. In the absence 
of definite experiments, it is not easy to determine 
the precise value of this grain in the jiroduction of 
mutton ; but in a comparative view, and reasoning 
from analogy, we have groimd for believing' that, un- 
der favorable conditions, three j)ounds of corn will 
produce a pound of mutton. 

According to Mr. Sanford Howard, " it has been 
proved that a given quantity of meat can be produced 
from the sheep at as little, and in some cases less ex- 
pense, than from any other animal ; and so far as can 
be ascertained, the meat is fully equal in nutritive 
properties. Here, then, we have from the sheep at 
least an equal amount of meat, as compared with any 
other animal, for the food consumed, while we obtain 
the fleece as clear gain." 

It is stated by the editor of the Agriculturist, that 
mutton is more economically made, and more advan- 



■ COST OF MUTTON MADE FROM CORN. 267 

tageouslj used up than pork or beef. He also further 
adds, that " more grain is required to make a pound 
of pork than a pound of mutton," and that the latter 
" is more nutritious, and will consequently give a la- 
borer more strength than pork." These statements 
are, no doubt, entirely true, and if true, are very im- 
portant, and ought to be more generally understood 
and acted upon. 

At the present time, when hogs are more than 
ordinarily scarce, it is certain that mutton can be 
made, with prudent management, at a handsome 
profit, and the occasion is favorable for inaugurating 
a more general, if not universal, consumption of this 
healthful and nutritious food. 

It is at least a reasonable presumption, that an 
animal carrying with it, like the sheep, a twofold 
source of profit, in its mutton and its wool, ought to 
be turned by the farmer to a very lucrative account, 
provided his attention is duly divided between the 
two objects, and not entirely monopolized by either. 
Indeed, it may be taken for granted, that whenever 
the sheep, with its double value of fleece and flesh, 
fails to prove highly remunerative, there is misman- 
agement somewhere, and it is highly probable that 
some part of the fault lies in the feeding. 

But in addition to the value of the fleece, another 
advantage in making mutton is found in the superior 
quality of the manure. Mr. Johnston, of Geneva, who 
has been very successful in feeding sheep for the mut- 
ton, considers this source of profit a very important feat- 
ure of the business. There is probably no land so poor, 



268 INDIAN CORN. 

no soil so hopeless, that it may not be restored under 
a system of sheep-husbandry. There seems to be a nat- 
ural antagonism between a poor soil and a flock of 
sheep. Wherever the latter goes the former disappears. 
Sterility of land flees from the presence of these useful 
animals, and the invasion of an unfertile region by 
the shepherd and his flock is the unfailing harbinger 
of green meadows and prolific fields of grain. 

Taking into account, then, the value of the manure, 
and the value of the fleece, it is more than probable 
that whenever the cost of producing mutton is fully 
and fairly tested, by accurate experiments in feeding, 
it will be found a cheaper article of food than is at 
present suspected. It will also probably be found that 
it can be made at a less expense, and of better quality, 
from the grain and stover of corn (with a due propor- 
tion of other feed), than in any other way. 

The weight and quality of the fleece varies, of 
course, with the breed. On a comparison of those 
breeds that are preferred for tlieir flesh, the average 
value of the clip would doubtless cover half the expense 
of feeding, and still leave a fair profit on the wool. In 
the opinion of many, the fleece would give a better 
result than this. The value of the manure is prob- 
ably equal to one-fom'th of the expense of feeding, 
and the remaining fourth represents the cost of the 
mutton. 

Probably the value here assumed for the manure 
will, by some, be considered too high, and that for 
the fleece too low. If so, one would ofiset the other, 
and the result would still be the same. 



COST OF MUTTON MADE FKOM COEN. 269 

Then, if we assume that in feeding sheep four 
pounds of corn will produce, on an average, one pound 
of flesh, though it is nearly certain the result would 
be better than this, we shall have one pound of corn 
as the cost of a pound of mutton. 

Supposing the corn to cost the farmer thirty cents 
a btishel, this would bring the cost of the mutton at 
half a cent a pound, and if we add for attendance, 
etc., as much more, the entire cost would be one cent, 
which, after allowing a liberal profit to the farmer, 
would still leave this meat accessible to the million, 
at a price that would render it the most economical, 
as it is the most healthful, description of animal food. 

In computing four pounds of corn, in the above 
estimate, as equal to one pound of flesh, it is not, of 
course, designed to make corn the exclusive feed. The 
principle intended to be illustrated may, perhaps, be 
more clearly stated as follows: In the use of any 
variety of healthy food, judiciously blended, and com- 
^rising a due "projpoHion of corn, an amount of it 
equal in nutritive value to four pounds of corn will 
produce a pound of flesh. 



COST OF BUTTER AND CHEESE MADE 
FROM CORN. 

It would be natural to conclude, from the essential 
nature and quality of Indian corn, that it must be 
well adapted to the production of butter. This con- 
clusion is confirmed by chemical investigation, and is 
further ratified by the results of experience. 

The first and most obvious efiect of corn meal is to 
improve the quality of the milk, and make it richer, 
by imparting to it a larger proportion of the con- 
stituents of butter and cheese. How far it affects the 
quantity of milk, as compared with some other kinds 
of feed, has not been very definitely determined. But 
for improving the flavor and increasing the amount 
of cheese and butter, it is found to be well adapted, 
and is thought by many to excel most kinds of feed. 

It is also found that the stover of corn has the 
same general tendency as the grain, though in a less 
degree. Its most favorable effect and highest value 
are only realized when the object is especially to pro- 
duce a copious flow of milk. For this purpose, the 
succulent stalk of Indian corn, whether fed green in 



COST OF BUTTER AND CHEESE MADE FROM CORN. 271 

summer and fall, or well cured, chaffed, and steamed, 
in winter, is probably not surpassed, if equalled, by 
any provender in use. 

Thus the combined result produced by the differ- 
ent parts of corn, one having a special influence on 
the milk, and the other a similar effect on the butter 
and cheese, seems to indicate the peculiar fitness and 
value of this cereal for the purposes of the dairy. 

What amount of this feed would be required for 
a given quantity of butter, has not yet been very 
accurately determined. Some estimates have been 
made rating the effective value of corn at from five 
to eight pounds for producing one pound of butter. 
In some experiments that have come to the knowledge 
of the author, the result was less than five pounds of 
corn for one of butter. 

Comparative estimates have also been made as to 
the relative amounts of beef and milk resulting from 
a given quantity of feed. Sir John Sinclair, as cited 
by Professor Johnston, has stated that the same 
provender which gives one hundred and twelve 
pounds of beef will yield three thousand six hundred 
pounds of milk. But this is undoubtedly erroneous ; 
the disproportion in favor of milk being greater than 
experience warrants us in crediting. 

The estimate of Riedesel, a Continental writer, 
is rather more reasonable, but still not accurate. 
According to the latter authority, the hay that gives 
one hundred pounds of beef will give one thousand 
pounds of milk. Allowing twenty pounds of the lat- 
ter for one of butter, which is about the general 



272 ETOIAN COEN. 

average, this would give fifty pounds of butter from 
the same feed that produces one hundred pounds of 
beef. This estimate, though it comes nearer than the 
previous one, errs in the opposite direction, and the 
truth undoubtedly lies between them. 

Others have computed the ratio of butter to beef, 
on equal quantities of feed, as eighty to one hundred, 
which is evidently more reasonable than either of the 
others, and seems to be very nearly correct. Com- 
paring this with the proportion of beef to corn, as 
given on a former page, it will be found that, for a 
pound of butter it would require five pounds of 
corn, over and above the stover, or other feed given 
to sustain the cow. Then, by the same calculation 
that gave fourteen pounds of beef for seventy-two 
cents, we shall have eleven and one-fifth pounds of 
butter for the same sum, which is about six and one- 
half cents per pound. 

In this calculation the farmer has charged his com 
at one dollar per bushel, and his stalks at six dollars 
per ton. If these were charged at the expense* of 
producing them, the effect would be to bring the cost 
of the butter to about four cents per pound, without 
taking the manure into the account. If the expense 
of grinding the corn and chaffing the stalks were 
added to this, and also the expense for labor in making 
the butter, the cost of the latter would still not proba- 
bly exceed six or seven cents per pound. 

In dairies devoted to cheese, the total product of 

* Calling the expense thirty cents per bushel for the grain, and 
three dollars per ton for the stalks. 



C!OST OF BUTTEE AND CHEESE ]VIADE FROM CORN. 273 

this article per cow is much larger than that of butter, 
and the relative value proportionably less. It is found 
that on the same amount of feed, a cow will produce 
from two to three times more cheese than butter. 
This ratio is not uniform nor constant, but varies with 
tlie breed of the cow, etc. On a general average, it 
is estimated by many farmers, that a cow will give 
two and a half pounds of cheese for one pound of 
butter. Some others make the proportion about 
two to one. If we assume the latter to be the 
true proportion, it will bring the cost of cheese to 
three and one-fourth cents per pound, when the 
farmer charges his corn at one dollar 23er bushel, and 
the stalks at six dollars per ton, or to two cents per 
pound, when the corn and stover are charged at the 
cost of production. After a fair allowance for the 
expense of labor in preparing the feed, making the 
cheese, etc., it would probably be found that the cost 
of the latter would be about four or five cents per lb. 

The above estimates for butter and cheese are 
based on the methods of making them usually prac- 
tised by farmers. But recent improvements have 
been introduced, and plans adopted, that have a ten- 
dency to modify and reduce the cost of production in 
the case of these articles. They are now extensively 
made by associations that have proved remarkably suc- 
cessful in producing both cheese and butter, especially 
the former, at a great advantage and with diminished 
expense. 

The foreign demand also that has recently sprung 
up for cheese made from skimmed milk cannot fail to 
12* 



274 INDIAN CORN. 

have tlie effect of increasing the profit on butter, by 
enabling tlie farmer, after the cream is taken from the 
milk, to turn the latter to a more lucrative account 
than formerly. 

Yet these circumstances can have no material 
effect upon the principle on which the above esti- 
mates are based. Whatever changes may be made 
either now or hereafter in the plan of making butter 
and cheese, yet the modes of feeding, the varieties of 
food, and the proportions of them, remain the same. 
The principles of feeding that we have endeavored to 
illustrate, as well as the relative value of com, and 
the advantage of using it in due proportion, if found 
correct in one case, will prove equally so in the 
other. 



HOW TO MAKE FEEDING PKOFITABLE. 

It is generally understood, and appears from the 
preceding investigation, that when the feeder sells his 
beef and mutton or the dairyman his butter and 
cheese, whatever the price they bring, and whatever 
the margin over the cost, there are two classes of ex- 
penses to be deducted, and two separate profits to be 
secured. When the farmer realizes on the sale of his 
butter, beef, and other products, a net result that gives 
him a fair profit on these articles over the cost and 
care of feeding, and a similar margin on the corn and 
other feed by which they were produced, he closes up 
the business of the year with a satisfactory balance on 
the right side of the account, and is entitled to con- 
sider himself a successful man. 

If, on the other hand, he discovers, on the sale of 
those products, that the expense of feeding and the 
cost of cultivation have not been reimbursed, and that 
after a year of toil there are no net gains to be count- 
ed, he may justly suspect, that in some one or several 
of the processes and operations of his farm there has 
been either culpable neglect, or needless and inexcu- 
sable want of information, or very possibly both. 



276 INDIAN CORN. 

He may vainly attempt to divide the blame be- 
tween an incorrigible soil on the one hand that refuses 
to reward a slovenly mode of culture, and an obstinate 
class of animals on the other, that do not choose to 
fatten upon neglect : but if he will reflect upon the 
nature of his business, and consider how many separate 
and distinct operations there are upon which the 
profit of his butter and beef mainly depend, he will 
find his want of success easily explained. He will 
discover that, in all the different processes from which 
pork, mutton, and beef are the final result, no one of 
them can be overlooked or disregarded, without some 
diminution of his ultimate profits. 

This important reflection, though seldom duly 
weighed, deserves the serious consideration of every 
man who cultivates the soil. Between the planting 
of the corn and the slaughtering of the ox there are 
more than a score of separate operations, each one of 
which produces an effect on the cost of the beef. 

If the farmer plants his corn a little too deep, or 
too late in the season, or too close together, or too far 
apart ; if he applies the wrong kind of manure, or the 
wrong quantity, or at the wrong time, or fails to apply 
any ; if his ground is imperfectly ploughed, or ploughed 
at the wrong time ; if he handles the horse-hoe care- 
lessly or too seldom ; if his corn is cut out of season or 
defectively cured ; if it is fed to his animals in an un- 
suitable condition, neither ground, cut, nor steamed ; 
if they are fed too seldom, or too much at one time 
and too little at another ; if the feed is deficient in 
variety, or combined in the wrong proportions ; — each 



HOW TO MAKE FEEDING PKOriTABLE. 277 

one of these separate contingencies, as well as many 
others not mentioned, exerts its own peculiar influence, 
small in some cases but great in others, upon the cost 
of beef, pork, and all similar products, and each one 
of these helps to determine the question whether the 
final result will be a profit or a loss. 

Thus it appears that the cost and the profit of 
these products have already begun to accrue when, in 
early spring, the farmer strikes the first furrow in his 
cornfield, and the plough in his hand becomes a 
mathematical instrument that helps to solve a ques- 
tion of figures. It may, in fact, be said with truth, 
that still earlier than the spring this question of cost 
has begun to be solved. When in the previous fall 
the cultivator goes into the field to select his seed-corn 
for the following crop, even then he settles, in that 
brief interval of time, one of the important contingen- 
cies on which his future profits are suspended. 

Considering, then, how many distinct operations 
the farmer goes through, before reaching his final re- 
sults, and how certainly these results are afiected by 
each operation and by his manner of performing it, 
it is scarcely surprising that experience difiers so 
widely in regard to the profit of feeding. It would 
seem that in farming, as in every other business, suc- 
cess depends, after all, more upon the man than on 
any other cause. Some men are constantly seeking in- 
formation and accumulating knowledge, while others 
prefer to cleave to their ignorance. One man con- 
trives to do every thing nearly right, while another is 



278 INDIAN CORN. 

equally infallible in doing every thing nearly or quite 
wrong. 

It is easy, then, to perceive that, if in the produc- 
tion of butter or beef there are twenty or thirty dif- 
ferent processes to be gone through, and one man 
adopts the best method in each, while another per- 
forms each imperfectly or not at all, their experience 
in the end will be entirely opposite ; one making a 
certain proiit and the other incurring inevitable loss. 
It is quite possible that each one of these various pro- 
cesses might make a diflference, on an average, of 
nearly one cent a pound in the cost of beef or mutton, 
and of several cents per bushel in the cost of corn. 

If, then, every farmer who embarks in feeding 
Btock for market, or in making butter or cheese, would 
adopt the obvious course suggested by these reflec- 
tions, giving careful attention to each particular pro- 
cess all the way through, and making sure that each 
one is rightly performed and at the proper time, he 
would find that feeding can be made a profitable 
business, and that by using all his faculties, mental as 
well as physical, his success would be morally certain. 



MISCELLAKEOUS IJSES OF COEK 

TnorGH the principal value of maize is due to its 
nutritive property, and its highest importance lies in 
the amount and quality of the food it supplies, there 
are yet other and various economical purposes for 
which the several parts of it have been found to be 
well adapted. 

Paper ajstd Cloth. — Many attempts have been 
made, with various success, to use the fibre of corn in 
the manufacture of paper. This fibre is contained in 
the husk, stalk, and leaves ; but a larger proportion 
of it, and perhaps a better quality, is found in the 
husk. The attempts to produce paper from this fibre 
have not thus far been very successful in this country, 
but in Austria a process has been discovered and 
patented for making a very superior article of corn- 
fibre paper, of various grades, and of the finest and 
strongest texture. 

The inventor of this process is Chevalier Auer 
Yan Welsbach, a native of Austria, and a member of 
the Imperial Government. His experiments have 
been conducted for a series of years under the patron- 



280 INDIAN CORN. 

age of the government, and have resulted successfully 
in rendering the fibre of maize entirely capable of 
conversion into paper of all kinds, as well as cloth. 

A variety of samples in our possession seem to 
establish, beyond any doubt, the excellence of this 
paper, and the fitness of corn-fibre for producing it. 
It is confidently asserted that the cost of making it 
from this material is less, compared with the quality, 
than from any other material known. From the 
finest tissue to the strongest hardware paper, every 
intervening grade has been produced by this Austrian 
process. 

It has been officially stated that, on the authority 
of artists and literary institutions, it is shown that 
from no other material, so far known, official, draw- 
ing, or tracing papers of such durability and tenacity, 
at equally low prices, have been produced. It is also 
asserted that the better qualities of post, fancy, and 
colored papers made of this fibre compete successfully 
with the finest of the same kind made from rags. 

It is also a remarkable fact that, from the same 
fibre of corn that is found capable of producing this 
diversity of papers, various grades and textures of 
cloth have been made, from the thin fabric used for 
summer clothing to the strongest oil-cloth. 

It seems a strange and almost incredible thing, 
that a plant grown in this country to greater extent 
and perfection than anywhere else, should be first 
applied to new and valuable uses under a European 
invention. Yankee ingenuity, so long proverbial 
throughout the world, has in this instance been 



MISCELLANEOUS USES OF COKN. 281 

thrown in the shade, and will need to look to its lau- 
rels. 

One thing is certain : if these fabrics can be pro- 
duced, by the Austrian process, at the prices and of 
the qualities claimed for them, which there seems no 
reason to doubt, it is clearly the interest of this coun- 
try to have the invention applied on a large scale 
among the cornfields of the West. Whenever the 
maize plant shall be made to produce largely, and at 
a moderate and paying price, other articles of utility 
and value besides food, it will undoubtedly give a 
new impulse to the growth and affluence of the 
country. 

Syeup and Sugar. — It has long been known that 
syrup can be made from the stalks of maize, and 
recently it has been ascertained that it may be suc- 
cessfully produced from the grain. Various attempts 
have been made to convert this syrup into sugar, but 
thus far with doubtful success. The syrup made 
from the stalk of corn is said to be of fair quality, 
but will probably never be able to compete with that 
produced from the Sorghum, now very generally and 
widely cultivated for the purpose. 

There is reason to believe, however, that the syrup 
produced, by a late invention, from the grain of the 
corn plant, will be able to compete successfully with 
most others in the market, in regard to quality and 
price. This syrup is the product of the starch of 
com, and may be made from that element more 
readily and less expensively than from the grain it- 
self. It is found that a bushel of com will yield three 



282 INDIAN COEN. 

gallons of the syrup, and the quality is by good judges 
pronounced excellent. 

Distillation. — This cereal has also, like some 
other of the best gifts of the Deity, been perverted to 
base and injurious uses. In Ohio and some other 
parts of the West it is employed in the manufacture 
of high wines and whiskey. While man is endowed 
with a twofold nature of good and evil, it is hardly 
perhaps to be expected that all the beneficent gifts of 
Providence will be exclusively appropriated to their 
highest and most valued purposes. But though the 
amount of corn consumed by the distiller appears 
large in the abstract, it is yet relatively small, and 
dwindles to comparative insignificance when viewed 
in connection with the vast quantities absorbed by 
other and better uses. 

Oil. — ^The vegetable oil contained in the grain of 
Indian corn is capable of separation by chemical 
means, and when thus extracted is more or less useful 
in various ways. For illuminating purposes it has 
been tried in some of the light-houses on the Western, 
lakes, and found available. It is doubtful, however, 
whether the proportion of oil yielded by corn (sixteen 
gallons to one hundred bushels of grain), taken in con- 
nection with the expense of separating it, will render 
it sufficiently economical for general use. 

Geeen Manuee. — For soils deficient in vegetable 
matter, ploughing in green crops is found by expe- 
rience to be very useful. It supplies the precise 
material most wanting in such cases, and in quantities 
that cannot fail to prove effective. Buckwheat and 



MISCELLANEOUS USES OF CORN. 283 

clover have hitherto been more generally employed 
for this purpose than any other crop, and the effect is 
invariably good. But green corn when used for the 
same object can be made to yield a much larger 
amount of vegetable matter, and is therefore capable 
of producing a larger result. Farmers have lately 
given considerable attention to this subject, and some 
of the results of recent experience go to show that 
great and almost incredible fertilizing effects may be 
in this way accomplished, especially in those cases 
where the condition of the soil requires a large addi- 
tion of vegetable matter. 

// Fuel, — In some parts of the West where corn is 
abundant and easily raised, and fuel is expensive 
and difficult to procure, farmers have sometimes 
found it both convenient and economical in winter to 
use a part of their surplus corn in feeding their fires. 
In well- wooded countries, and in the vicinity of coal- 
regions, this practice Avill probably never become 
necessary. But there are districts of country in 
some of the "Western States where the distance from 
coal mines, the extent of the prairie, and the absence 
of railroads make it difficult to procure eitlier fire- 
wood or coal at any reasonable price. It is fortunate 
for the farmer, in such cases, that Indian corn can be 
produced at such a rate of cost and in such abundance 
that, after appropriating all that is needed for the 
wants of his family and the requirements of his stock, 
he has still an ample supply left to insure a warm 
and cheerful hearth through the long winter even- 
ings. 



284: INDIAN CORN. 

There are those who consider this practice objec- 
tionable and wrong, and who seem to be shocked at 
the idea of burning as fuel a commodity so useful and 
valuable for food. But a little reflection will show how 
easy it is for the mind to be so warped by early im- 
pressions and preconceived notions as to fail in making 
simple and obvious distinctions. If this grain was 
designed by Providence for the use of man, it must 
clearly have been intended that he should so use it as 
to derive from it the greatest amount of benefit ; and 
the particular way or the number of ways in which he 
should use it, is entirely a question of circumstances. 
That the corn which keeps a man from freezing may 
be just as useful to him as that which keeps him from 
starving, is a dictate of common sense too plain to re- 
quire argument. 

It is highly probable that the time is not far dis- 
tant when the cost of producing corn will be so re- 
duced by improved culture and improved varieties, 
that the use of it as fuel will be much more general 
and extensive than it is at present ; when it Will take 
the place of fire-wood and coal, not merely occasion- 
ally and at a pinch, but in many places constantly 
and systematically. Indeed, it would hardly be ex- 
travagant to anticipate the time when farmers remote 
from railroads and from wooded districts will make it 
a part of their regular plan to plant not only a field 
of corn for the granary, but another for the wood- 
shed. 

Mattkesses. — The husks of corn are frequently 
turned to a useful account by farmers and others, in 



MISCELLANEOUS USES OF CORN. 285 

making mattresses, for which they are said to answer 
exceedingly well, and are highly commended by some 
who have tried them, on the score of economy and 
durability, as well as comfort. 



THE PEODUCT OF ONE ACKE. 

The quantity of food that an acre of land is capa- 
ble of producing is a question of some interest to 
society, and one that rises in importance as population 
advances. There is a period in the growth of every 
people when the number of inhabitants to a square 
mile produces a demand for food that raises the ques- 
tion of possible supply. 

It is true, the alarm at one time created by the 
theory of Malthus has been dissipated by later and 
sounder writers, and men are no longer terrified by 
the apprehension that increasing population will out- 
run the means of subsistence until the earth fails to 
feed its inhabitants. The possibility of this event, if 
it be a possibility, is too remote to give serious con- 
cern to the present generation. 

Yet it cannot be denied that, in thickly-settled 
communities, great interests are at stake on the facili- 
ties for procuring food, and on the certainty of its 
supply ; and the importance of preserving and increas- 
ing the fertility of the earth becomes in every country 
more and more apparent from year to year as popula- 
tion accumulates. 



THE PEODUCT OF ONE ACRE. 287 

Even our own favored land of boundless acres and 
sparse population is no permanent exception to this 
universal rule. Here, as in older countries, it is found 
that the value of land rises with the augmented num- 
bers present to consume its products, and the rapid 
accumulation of mouths to be fed is prophetic of a 
coming demand for increased productiveness of soil, 
and more perfect modes of culture. 

It is, perhaps, true enough to-day, that no man in 
Iowa or Nebraska would feel himself to be any poorer, 
nor would pay any more for his beef and bread, if the 
ultimate capacity of each acre were less than it is. 
There is no present necessity of reaching that ultimate 
capacity, and consequently no concern felt in regard 
to it. But these facts are transient. The natural in- 
crease of population, augmented as it is by constant ac- 
cessions from abroad, will in the course of time entirely 
change this condition, and the now unpeopled prairie 
will swarm with hungry consumers of bread and meat, 
that will make it expedient for every farmer to hus- 
band the affluence of his soil, and test the capacity of 
his acres. 

From these and like considerations, it will per- 
haps be interesting to examine some of the capabili- 
ties of an acre of corn. 

For this purpose, let us assume the product of an 
acre to be one hundred bushels. This, as before 
shown, will give a yield of stalks equal to four tons. 

It was found, in a previous estimate, that one hun- 
dred pounds of the stover are equal in feeding to 
forty-eight pounds of corn ; but in order to accommo- 



288 



INDIAN CORN. 



date this estimate to the views of those who may pos- 
sibly rate the value of stalks lower than this, let us 
take one hundred pounds of them as equal to forty- 
five pounds of the grain ; or, in other words, let us 
suppose that one hundred pounds of the stover will 
produce the same amount of butter, beef, mutton, 
etc., as forty-five pounds of corn. 

Comparing this with the estimate made on a for- 
mer page for the cost of beef, it will be found that, 
when the stalks and grain are fed separately, it re- 
quires about seventeen and a half pounds of the for- 
mer, or eight pounds, very nearly, of the latter, to 
produce a pound of beef. If we extend the calcula- 
tion to other products, the general results will be very 
nearly as indicated in the following table, which gives 
the weight of grain, and also the weight of stalk, 
either of which, separately, will produce one pound of 
each of the products named : 









£ i 




g a 




Corn. 


8 lbs. 
ITi" 


10 lbs. 
22 " 


5 lbs. 
11 " 


Jib. 


4 lbs. 
9 » 


8 lbs. 


Stover 









Some of these figures vary slightly from the exact 
proportion, but they are near enough for practical 
purposes. 

Kow, in taking the yield of an acre of com at one 
hundred bushels, we shall have five thousand six hun- 



THE PKODUCT OF ONE ACRE. 



289 



dred pounds of grain and eight thousand pounds of 
stover ; but as some varieties of corn and some modes 
of planting would not give this proportion of stalks, 
the result stated below is calculated for two different 
yields of the latter, viz., three tons per acre and four 
tons. 

PEODirOT OP DIFFEEENT KINDS OF FOOD FEOM ONE AOEE OF 
COEN. 



YIELD OF COKN. 


Beet 


Batter. 


Cheese. 


MUk. 


Mutton. 




Grain. 


Stover. 




100 bush. 

100 " 


8 tons. 
4 " 


1,042 lbs. 
1,15T « 


832 lbs. 
923 " 


1,664 lbs. 
1,846 " 


16,640 lbs. 
18,460 " 


2,066 lbs. 

3,288 •' 


1,866 lbs. 
1,866 " 



The amount of pork given in the last column rep- 
resents the product of grain only. If the stover omit- 
ted in that case were converted into mutton, it would 
give six hundred and sixty-six pounds for three tons 
of the stalks, or eight hundred and eighty-eight 
pounds for four tons. The total product of the acre, 
therefore, in the last column would be, of pork and 
mutton together, two thousand five hundred and 
thirty-two pounds in one case, and two thousand 
seven hundred and fifty-four pounds in the other. 

It is important for the farmer to remember, that 
when he devotes his acres to either of the above prod- 
ucts he gets, in addition to these returns, a liberal 
supply of valuable manure. The total amount of 
grain and stalk in the above crop is eleven thousand 
six hundred pounds in one case, and thirteen thou? 
13 



290 INDIAN COKN. 

sand six liimdred pounds in the otlier. In the con- 
Buuiption of this quantity of provender, the resulting 
manure would be worth from forty to sixty dollars, 
and upward, according to the economy and intelli- 
gence exercised in the care and use of it. 

It is also to be considered that, in the case of mut- 
ton, the value of the fleece is to be added, as part of 
the product of the acre ; and in the case of butter and 
cheese, the value of the port made from the refuse of 
the dairy is, in like manner, a part of the acreable 
product. It has been estimated that, with good man- 
agement, the milk of a cow will produce a pound of 
pork for every pound of butter. 

But there is another view of this subject that fur- 
ther illustrates the capacity of an acre of corn for con- 
tributing to the support of the human family. "When 
the corn meal is converted into bread and other forms 
of food for the table, it is found that three pounds of 
the meal produce over seven pounds of bread, prob- 
ably seven and a half pounds on an average. Omit- 
ting the fraction, this will give more than thirteen 
thousand pounds of corn-bread per acre, at the rate of 
yield assumed above. In addition to this, the prod- 
uct of the stover, supposing it to be three tons per 
acre, would be equivalent to either of the following, 
viz., to three hundred and forty-two pounds of beef, 
two hundred and seventy-two pounds of butter, five 
hundred and forty-four pounds of cheese, five thousand 
four hundred and forty pounds of milk, or six hundred 
and sixty-six pounds of mutton. 

This would support a family of seven persons for 



THE PRODUCT OF ONE ACRE, 291 

two years, supposing each man, woman, and child to 
consume two and a half pounds of bread and one 
pound of milk per day ; or if, instead of the milk, 
either of the other products were consumed in the 
proportion of their yield. Bat this amount of food 
to each person is larger than experience has found 
requisite. Taking the average consumption of food 
in families, the product of the above acre would ex- 
ceed the result here given. 



CORN CULTUEE AT THE WEST. 

Agkiculture on the Western prairies is quite a 
different affair, and presents a different aspect, from 
that with which Eastern farmers are familiar. It is 
conducted on a scale of such extent, and in a manner 
so original and peculiar, that it has not only eclipsed 
all previous ideas on the subject, but seems to have 
quite bewildered the staid farmers of the older States, 
some of whom appear to be needlessly disturbed, 
and imagine all their established theories to be un- 
settled because the man who plants his corn by the 
square mile considers it necessary to strike out a 
theory and practice of his own ; as if he imagined his 
gourd-seed crop of five hundred acres would not be 
the " big thing " that it is, if raised on the same prin- 
ciples that produce the yellow-flint crop of five acres, 
or the King Philip of three. 

The brave and resolute yeoman who, disdaining 
his scanty paternal inheritance in 'New England, has 
gone forth with a steadfast purpose, and an iron will, 
to commit his fortunes to the rising West, is naturally 
impatient of the minute details and commonplace 
results of Eastern farming, and confidently expects 



COKN CULTURE AT THE WEST. 293 

that, in his new quarters, exuberance of soil and 
multitude of acres will lift him above the drudgery of 
old methods, make him independent of received max- 
ims, and yet remunerate a minimum of labor with a 
maximum yield. 

If his hrst crop disappoints him, he is nothing 
daunted, but plants a wider breadth the following 
year, still sanguine of success, defiant of chemistry, 
and superior to the laws of vegetation. He is bound 
to realize his early dreams of mammoth granaries 
densely filled; and so long as that end is gained, he 
cares not to inquire whether it results from quantity 
of land, or perfection of culture. If when his crop is 
harvested he can count the product by thousands 
of bushels, his object is equally accomplished, whether 
it is the yield of several hundred acres imperfectly 
cultivated, or of fifty acres thoroughly tilled. 

But after all, this passion for doing things on a 
large scale, at a rapid rate and therefore superficially, 
is but the outcropping of a national infirmity, and 
will in due season bring its own remedy. Let us, 
then, give all due credit to the intrepid pioneer of the 
prairie, who, though some of his ideas may be more 
colossal than correct, is yet doing a grand work for 
humanity, in extending the domain of civilization 
over an unsubdued wildern-ess, and transforming the 
wild pastures of the bufli'alo into fields of golden 
grain. 

The prevalent notion that the agriculture of the 
"Western States is essentially, and of necessity, a dif- 
ferent thing from that of the East, calling for a differ- 



294 INDIAN COEN. 

ent set of principles and system of practice, tliougli 
it may have some slight or apparent foundation in the 
difference of conditions, is nevertheless pregnant with 
mischievous error. 

Whatever the distinction is, or ought to be, be- 
tween the modes of culture practised in the two sec- 
tions of the country, it is supposed to be founded on 
the fact that in one of these localities land is cheap 
and labor is dear, while in the other the case is re- 
versed; and also perhaps on the further fact, that 
where the land is lowest in price, and most abundant, 
it is, at the same time, the most productive. This at 
least appears to be the general argument for the West- 
ern system. 

It does not, however, very clearly appear how the 
low price and fertile quality of Western land, or even 
the high price of Western labor, can justify the 
repudiation of some of the soundest maxims of hus- 
bandry. It is not entirely evident that a given 
amount of corn is more profitably raised from a large 
area of land than from one of half the extent, even 
admitting the land to cost less and the labor more 
than they do at the East. That this may be the case 
to a limited extent, and in exceptional instances, is 
very possible. But that it is true in general and in 
the long run, it would be hard to show. E'or is it 
easy to perceive the economy of turning cattl^'jnto 
the cornfield durino; fall and winter to browse-'on the 
hard and juiceless remnants of a once nutritious stover 
from which alternate frost and sun have expelled all 
the nutriment. Equally difficult also would it be to 



CORN CULTURE AT THE WEST. 295 

justify, upon any sound principle, tlie improvident 
practice of allowing the cattle and other stock of the 
farm to enter the cornfield, at the maturity of the 
grain, to do their o^\^l harvesting. 

It is urged, in defence of this practice, that the 
difficulty of procm'ing help sometimes renders it un- 
avoidable ; but if the farmer, instead of planting a 
half section or more of land, had^ planted one-half or 

w^bne-fourth of that extent, adopting at the same time / 
the best modes of culture, he would realize in the end 

^/^a larger crop, and the labor and expense of harvesting 
would be greatly redjiced. Instead of rambling over 
miles of territory to gather up a scattered and lean 
crop, he would have a compact, abundant, and profit- 
able yield within a small compass —a crop that would 
be easily harvested, and that would pay well for 
gathering, even at some extra expense for the 
labor. 

The whole of the argument in support of the prev- 
alent system of Western culture seems to be an inver- 
sion of the usual mode of reasoning. The superior 
quality of the soil, so far from being an excuse for 
careless cultivation, is the best reason in the world 
why it should be treated in the most thorough man- 
ner. It is only the thorough treatment of the land 
that reveals the fulness of its wealth. The high price 
of labor, instead of being a reason for difiusing it over 
a large surface, is an argument for concentration — for 
bringing it within the smallest compass, where every 
blow tells, and every stroke is sure of its legitimate 
effect. 



296 mDiAJsr coen. 

The man who should employ a carpenter at three 
dollars a day to drive nails, and put him in a position 
where he could only hit every tenth nail on the head, 
would be very likely to complain of the expense of 
labor, but he \yould hardly assign that as an excuse 
for his folly ; on the contrary, he would find in the 
price of labor the strongest argument for reforming 
his practice. Let him place his man in a situation 
where every blow drives a nail home, and he will not 
consider the work dearly paid for, whether it costs one 
dollar a day or three. 

It is proper, however, to remark, and it is gratify- 
ing to know, that this uncalculating and unprofitable 
mode of husbandry is by no means universal, in any 
section of the country, and that there are throughout 
the "West many enlightened farmers to whom these 
strictures have no application. There is, indeed, 
through all that country, a marked and increasing 
tendency toward a better system of culture. The 
progress of recent years proves that the evil com- 
plained of is steadily diminishing and disappearing 
under the influence of dijffused intelligence, of the in- 
creasing number of farmers' clubs, and of other multi- 
plied facilities and valuable sources of useful knowl- 
edge. 

In proportion as men advance in reading and 
thinking, they gradually acquire the habit of getting 
a larger amount of products from a less amount of 
land ; and our "Western farmers are already begin- 
ning to discover that a more careful, calculating, and 
concentrated culture will produce more corn from an 



ooEN culthee at the west. 297 

acre, at a less cost per hushel, and that a more provi- 
dent mode of harvesting and feeding will give a larger 
amount of beef and pork from an acre, at a less cost 
per pound. 



13* 



THE MAmiFACTUEING INTEREST m ITS 
RELATION TO AGRICULTURE. 

Nothing would contribute more, and perhaps noth- 
ing so much, to the growth and prosperity of the West 
and South as the extension and increase of the manu- 
facturing interest. The man who converts raw mate- 
rials into articles of utility, convenience, or luxury, is 
a creator of values, and is to that extent a useful and 
valuable citizen in every community. Like the farmer, 
he creates products that meet the wants and necessi- 
ties of men, and his presence is not merely important 
to society, but indispensable to its progress. The 
manufacturer undoubtedly ranhs next in importance 
to the farmer, and their avocations are in many points 
strikingly analogous. It may indeed be said that the 
farmer, in a broad and important sense, is himself a 
manufacturer, for, like the latter, he is essentially a 
creator of values. 

There is, therefore, between these two departments 
of industry a close and intimate connection, — a rela- 
tionship of mutual dependence and reciprocal benefits. 
There is probably no country on the globe and no 
condition of society in which the presence of the man- 



THE MANUFACTURING INTEEEST, ETC. 299 

ufacturer is more needed at this moment than in some 
of our Western and Southern States. 

The farmer is already there, and is doing his work 
bravely. He is continually accumulating agricultural 
products, which, if he had a near-by market, would 
be synonymous with agricultural wealth. "When the 
manufacturer goes into such a community, he supplies 
a vacancy that is anxiously awaiting him, and which 
no one but liimself can fill. He finds already there 
in ample abundance that which he most needs, name- 
ly, cheap food and a market for his products, and fur- 
nishes in return the very commodities most essential 
to the wants and necessities of those around him. 
Thus the proximity of the two classes results in the 
highest possible advantage to each, and the inter- 
change of commodities becomes a mutual benefit and 
reciprocal wealth. 

The more widely you separate the farmer and 
manufacturer, the more you impoverish them both. 
The closer the contact in which you place them, the 
more you increase and render certain the success and 
affluence of each. Wherever a manufacturing edifice 
i-s reared in the West, the result is a wider home mar- 
ket for beef and pork, and a rise in the price of corn. 
The advent of factory operatives into a new agricul- 
tural region assures coming prosperity to the farmer, 
and the discordant clatter of machinery that shocks the 
ears of other men is to him the sweetest of music ; for 
it starts the long dormant corn from the crib, gives 
new activity and interest to butter and beef, and in- 
fallibly prognosticates a new top to the Sunday car- 



300 INDIAN CORK. 

riage, a silk gown for the wife, a suit of clothes for 
the little boy, and a new dress for the baby. 

"Without assuming to determine the true limit of 
government policy in fostering the various industrial 
pursuits, it is certainly much to be desired — ^nay, in- 
finitely important to the highest good of this nation — 
that the manufacturing interest should keep pace 
more nearly with the onward march of agriculture. 
When these go forward with a uniform and parallel 
progress, mutually aiding and enriching each other, 
and scattering their useful and valuable products 
broadcast through the land, the highest condition of 
material prosperity for the whole country is then ful- 
filled. 

On a comparative view of these great interests, it 
is perfectly clear that every public measure adopted 
in favor of the manufacturer promotes indirectly, and 
probably in the long run to an equal extent, the pros- 
perity not only of the farmer but of every other class 
in the community ; and any line of policy calculated 
to bring these two producing classes into closer prox- 
imity, is a benefit to consumers of every class. It not 
only tends to increase the supply of their products, 
but the result is a general and pervading diffusion of 
these needful and useful commodities, with much less 
of the expensive intervention of railroads and steam- 
ers. Thus to the consumer the cost of such products 
is diminished by all the difierence of the expense of 
transportation, while lie also derives a further advan- 
tage in the facility of procuring them with prompt- 
ness and certainty. 



MAEKET PKICE. 

The market price of Indian com per bushel is to 
many farmers, and might well be to all, a matter of 
comparative indifference. Every judicious cultivator 
understands that, as a general rule, it is against his 
interest, and in most cases a blind and mistaken poli- 
cy, to send his corn to a market town to be converted 
into money at the current quotations. There are, of 
course, exceptions to this, as to all general rules. 
There are times when the market price rises to a level 
that justifies the husbandman in turning some portion 
of his crop into ready cash. There are also emergen- 
cies that occasionally arise in the experience of farm- 
ers when it becomes expedient or necessary to realize 
prompt returns for their corn crop or a part of it, even 
though it be at a sacrifice. 

Such cases, however, are but necessary evils, and 
under good management will very rarely occur. The 
true and obvious policy of the prudent farmer is to 
feed out his corn on his own premises, thus saving the 
expense of transportation, and returning to his soil 



302 INDIAN CORN. 

the elements of fertility extracted by the crop. The 
most profitable market for corn, and in nearly all 
. cases the only profitable one, is to be found in the 
cattle-stall, the pig-stye, the cow-yard, and the poul- 
try-house ; not omitting, of course, the family table, 
which, though more limited, is, as far as its require- 
ments extend, the best of all markets. 

As every farmer, however, is liable occasionally to 
find his interest in resorting to a cash market, not 
merely for the sale of his com, but sometimes and 
perhaps more profitably as a purchaser, it is a matter 
of some interest to keep himself tolerably posted in 
regard to the current quotations, and more especially 
is this true in reference to some of the other products 
of the farm. In the range of prices for all such pro- 
visions as corn is used in producing, he necessarily 
feels a lively interest, for in these he discerns the real 
profit on his corn crop. 

The average price of corn in the New York mar- 
ket for the last three years is about one dollar and 
twenty cents per bushel. This price having resulted 
from the rebellion, is of course exceptional, and can- 
not be permanent. For the first two months of the 
present year (1866) yellow corn has ranged from 
eighty to ninety-five cents. For a long series of years 
previous to the war the average was not over sixty- 
five cents, and for the last forty years, including the 
period of the rebellion, the average price is about 
sixty-seven cents per bushel. 

The average price of corn for 1865, as compared 
with several other products, is as follows : 



MAEKET PKICE. 



303 



Com 
per bushel. 

$1.16 



Beef 
per lb. 



Pork 
per lb. 



11 Cts. 12 cts. 



Butter 
per lb. 

40 cts. 



Cheese 
per lb. 

16 cts. 



The following table, fi'om tlie Neio York Tribune^ 
gives the average price of beef cattle per pound each 
year for the last twelve years : 



1854, per lb. 9 c. fuU. 

1855, 10c. 

1856, 9ic. nearly. 

1857, lOJc. nearly. 

1858, 8^0. nearly. 

1859, 9c. 



1860, per lb. 8c. full. 

1861, 7|c. 

1862, 7|c. 

1863, 9ic. 

1864, 14ic. 

1865, 16c. 



The Tribune estimates the average weight of cattle 
marketed at seven hundred pounds per head ; and, 
adding the milch cows to the beeves, as they nearly 
all eventually go to the shambles, the total number 
is two hundred and seventy-nine thousand, four hun- 
dred and thirty-five head of cattle, rej^resenting an 
aggregate of one hundred and ninety-five million, 
six hundred and four thousand, five hundred pounds 
of meat, and tliirty-one million, two hundred and 
ninety-six thousand, seven hundred and twenty dol- 
lars in money value. According to its estimate as to 
sheep (average eighty pounds each, at eight cents per 
pound), the total of mutton is sixty-six million, nine 
hundred and thirty-eight thousand, six hundred and 
forty pounds, costing five million, three hundred and 
fifty-five thousand, and ninety-one dollars. 

Tor the first two months of the present year the 



304 INDIAN CORN. 

price of corn compares with other leading products as 
follows : 

Com Beef Pork Butter Cheese 

per bushel per lb. per lb. per lb. per lb. 

JA^nTAET, 90 cts. 10 cts. 11 cts. 34 cts. 15 cts. 

Febettaey, 85 cts. 9^ cts. 11 cts. 35 cts. 18 cts. 



CONCLUSION 

Throughout the discussion of this subject, it has 
been a leading object with the author to illustrate the 
value of first principles, and to convince the farmer 
that in order to insure the highest success in cultivat- 
ing his corn, as well as in using it with advantage, 
thoroughness of treatment is not merely important 
and useful, but that it is in fact the one indispensable 
condition, in which all others are included. This, 
though true enough in other branches of husbandry, 
is more emphatically so in the case of corn, on account 
of its remarkable capacity of development. Its sensi- 
tive nature feels and responds to every degree of treat- 
ment, rapidly unfolding and expanding under the 
genial influence of care and efi[brt, springing forward 
at every touch of thoughtful culture, and, when the 
hand of skilful labor has apparently exliausted its 
capability of production, still showing that it has a 
further capacity of yield — only requiring additional 
labor and thought, and awaiting the approach of a 
new and higher method of culture. 

It has also been the constant endeavor of the wri- 



306 ESTDIAN CORN. 

ter to render the discussion of this subject as practical 
as possible, well aware that, without this quality, it 
could have but little interest or value for the farmer. 
Yet it should never be forgotten that in many in- 
stances sound practical conclusions are more readily 
arrived at by the aid of theory than in. any other way. 
Indeed, all reasoning from the facts of experience to 
general conclusions is of necessity more or less theoreti- 
cal ; and however strong the tendency among cultiva- 
tors to separate facts from theory, repudiating the 
latter as of little or no value, still it is only by pre- 
serving a proper connection between them that the 
greatest usefulness of each is found, and the most im- 
portant results obtained. 

It must, however, be admitted that the prejudice 
prevailing among farmers against theoretical investiga- 
tion is very easily accounted for and perhaps in some 
measure justified by the extravagant theories too 
often propounded by speculative writers — theories 
with scarcely a fact to rest upon, and certainly not 
entitled to the confidence of sensible men. It is not, 
therefore, difficult to understand the jealousy and dis- 
trust with which this class of speculations are apt to 
be viewed by agriculturists. 

Yet it does not follow, because some writers in- 
dulge in vague and shadowy abstractions, dignifying 
them with the name of theory, that all theoretical in- 
quiry is necessarily unsound and useless. There is 
probably no principle nor method of investigation 
that is not liable to misapplication or abl|p ; but this 
consideration, while it furnishes good ground for cau- 



CONCLUSION. 307 

tion in accepting results, is not a sufficient reason 
why such metliod of inquiry should be entirely 
ignored. Though it justifies careful discrimination 
between true and false reasoning, it does not warrant 
the rejection of sound conclusions merely because 
they are theoretically deduced. It often happens, 
that the theorist, by pushing his investigations in ad- 
vance, prepares the way for the practical man, ren- 
dering his success easy and certain. When practice, 
therefore, repudiates all theory alike, without discrimi- 
nating between the true and the false, it deprives 
itself of much valuable aid, and rejects a portion of 
the light that illuminates the path to success. 

In nearly all the highest achievements of human 
ability, thought precedes action, and theory is the 
precursor of valuable practical results. It was 
theoretical investigation that, a few years since, 
announced to the world a new planet in the solar 
system, in advance of its actual discovery ; and the 
practical astronomer might have long swept his glass 
over the heavens in a fruitless search for the imknown 
wanderer, had not the speculative mind of Leverrier 
given to the instrument its true direction. 

It is clearly, then, the interest of the farmer to 
banish from his mind the narrow prejudice that dis- 
cerns no truth outside of its own traditions, and re- 
pudiates all knowledge derived from books. It is 
clearly the dictate of practical wisdom to remember 
that the soundness of every theoretical investigation 
depends onljj^s relation to facts, and that these rise in 
value and importance in proportion as they are illumi- 



308 ESIDIAN CORN. 

nated by theory ; tliat the most perfect husbandry is 
that in which fact and theory are harmoniously 
blended, and that the strong right arm on which the 
farmer confidently relies works out its best results 
when it executes the intelligent plans of a thoughtful 
and reasoning mind. 



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